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THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY 


































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THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY, 


Frontispiece 



















THE 

COUNTERPANE -FAIRY 

'Written ancfX^ustratecP 

h 

Katharine Pyle 



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Copyright 

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CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I.—THE PRINCESS OF THE GOLDEN CASTLE, 7 

II.-THE OWLS AND THE GAMBLESOME ELF, 29 

III. -STARLEIN AND SILVERLING 50 

IV. -THE MAGIC CIRCUS .... 68 

V.-AT THE EDGE OF THE POLAR SEA . 87 

VI.-THE RUBY RING ..... 113 

VII.-THE RAINBOW CHILDREN . . . I33 

viii.—Harriett’s dream .... 149 

IX. -DOWN THE RAT-HOLE .... 164 

X. —THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY SAYS GOOD¬ 
BYE .185 


V 











THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY. 


CHAPTER FIRST. 

THE PRINCESS OF THE GOLDEN 
CASTLE. 

EDDY was all alone, for his 
mother had been up with him so 
much the night before that at 
about four o’clock in the after¬ 
noon she said that she was going 
to lie down for a little while. 

The room where Teddy lay was very 
pleasant, with two big windows, and the 
furniture covered with gay old-fashioned 



7 







8 The Counterpane Fairy. 

India calico. His mother had set a glass 
of milk on the table beside his bed, and 
left the stair door ajar so that he could 
call Hannah, the cook, if he wanted any¬ 
thing, and then she had gone over to her 
own room. 

The little boy had always enjoyed being 
ill, for then he was read aloud to and had 
lemonade, but this had been a real illness, 
and though he was better now, the doctor 
still would not let him have anything but 
milk and gruel. He was feeling rather 
lonely, too, though the fire crackled cheer¬ 
fully, and he could hear Hannah singing to 
herself in the kitchen below. 

Teddy turned over the leaves of Robin¬ 
son Crusoe for a while, looking at the gaily 
colored pictures, and then he closed it and 
called, “Hannah!” The singing in the 
kitchen below ceased, and Teddy knew 
that Hannah was listening. “ Hannah ! ” 
he called again. 

At the second call Hannah came hurry- 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 9 

ing up the stairs and into the room. 
“What do you want, Teddy?” she 
asked. 

“ Hannah, I want to ask mamma some¬ 
thing,” said Teddy. 

“Oh,” said Hannah, “you wouldn’t 
want me to call your poor mother, would 
you, when she was up with you the whole 
of last night and has just gone to lie down 
a bit ? ” 

“ I want to ask her something,” re¬ 
peated Teddy. 

“You ask me what you want to know,” 
suggested Hannah. “ Your poor mother’s 
so tired that I’m sure you are too much 
of a man to want me to call her.” 

“ Well, I want to ask her if I may have 
a cracker,” said Teddy. 

“ Oh, no ; you could n’t have that,” said 
Hannah. “ Don’t you know that the 
doctor said you must n’t have anything 
but milk and gruel ? Did you want to ask 
her anything else ? ” 


io The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ No,” said Teddy, and his lip trem¬ 
bled. 

After that Hannah went down-stairs to 
her work again, and Teddy lay staring 
out of the window at the windy gray clouds 
that were sweeping across the April sky. 
He grew lonelier and lonelier and a lump 
rose in his throat; presently a big tear 
trickled down his cheek and dripped off 
his chin. 

“ Oh dear, oh dear! ” said a little voice 
just back of the hill his knees made as he 
lay with them drawn up in bed ; “what a 
hill to climb ! ” 

Teddy stopped crying and gazed won- 
deringly toward where the voice came 
from, and presently over the top of his 
knees appeared a brown peaked hood, a 
tiny withered face, a flapping brown 
cloak, and last of all two small feet in 
buckled shoes. It was a little old woman, 
so weazened and brown that she looked 
more like a dried leaf than anything else. 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 11 


She seated herself on Teddy’s knees 
and gazed down at him solemnly, and she 
was so light that he felt her weight no 
more than if she had been a feather. 

Teddy lay staring at her for a while, 
and then he asked, “ Who are you ? ” 

“ I’m the Counterpane Fairy,” said the 
little figure, in a thin little voice. 

“ I don’t know what that is,” said 
Teddy. 

“Well,” said the Counterpane Fairy, 
“ it’s the sort of a fairy that lives in houses 
and watches out for the children. I used 
to be one of the court fairies, but I grew 
tired of that. There was nothing in it, 
you know.” 

“ Nothing in what ? ” asked Teddy. 

“ Nothing in the court life. All day 
the fairies were swinging in spider-webs 
and sipping honey-dew, or playing games 
of hide-and-go-seek. The only comfort I 
had was with an old field-mouse who lived 
at the edge of the wood, and I used to 


12 The Counterpane Fairy. 

» 

spend a great deal of time with her; I 
used to take care of her babies when she 
was out hunting for something to eat; 
cunning little things they were, — five of 
them, all fat and soft, and with such funny 
little tails.” 

“ What became of them?” 

“ Oh, they moved away. They left be¬ 
fore I did. As soon as they were old 
enough, Mother Field-mouse went. She 
said she could n’t stand the court fairies. 
They were always playing tricks on her, 
stopping up the door of her house with 
sticks and acorns, and making faces at her 
babies until they almost drove them into 
fits. So after that I left too.” 

“ Where did you go ? ” 

“ Oh, hither and yon. Mostly where 
there were little sick boys and girls.” 

“ Do you like little boys ?” 

“Yes, when they don’t cry,” said the 
Counterpane Fairy, staring at him very 
hard. 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 13 

“Well, I was lonely,” said Teddy. “I 
wanted my mamma.” 

“ Yes, I know, but you ought n’t to have 
cried. I came to you, though, because 
you were lonely and sick, and I thought 
maybe you would like me to show you a 
story.” 

“ Do you mean tell me a story ?” asked 
Teddy. 

“ No,” said the fairy, “ I mean show 
you a story. It’s a game I invented 
after I joined the Counterpane Fairies. 
Choose any one of the squares of the 
counterpane and I will show you how to 
play it. That’s all you have to do,—to 
choose a square.” 

Teddy looked the counterpane over 
carefully. “ I think I ’ll choose that yel¬ 
low square,” he said, “because it looks so 
nice and bright.” 

“ Very well,” said the Counterpane 
Fairy. “ Look straight at it and don’t 
turn your eyes away until I count seven 


14 The Counterjpane Fairy. 

times seven, and then you shall see the 
story of it.” 

Teddy fixed his eyes on the square and 
the fairy began to count. “ One—two— 
three—four,” she counted; Teddy heard 
her voice, thin and clear as the hissing of 
the logs on the hearth. “ Don’t look 
away from the square,” she cried. “ Five 
— six—seven” — it seemed to Teddy 
that the yellow silk square was turning 
to <a mist before his eyes and wrapping 
everything about him in a golden glow. 
“ Thirteen—fourteen ”—the fairy counted 
on and on. “Forty-six — forty-seven — 
forty-eight— forty-nine ! ” 

At the words forty-nine, the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy clapped her hands and Teddy 
looked about him. He was no longer in 
a golden mist. He was standing in a 
wonderful enchanted garden. The sky 
was like the golden sky at sunset, and 
the grass was so thickly set with tiny yel¬ 
low flowers that it looked like a golden 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 15 

carpet. From this garden stretched a 
long flight of glass steps. They reached 
up and up and up to a great golden castle 
with shining domes and turrets. 

“ Listen ! ” said the Counterpane Fairy. 
“In that golden castle there lies an en¬ 
chanted princess. For more than a hun¬ 
dred years she has been lying there 
waiting for the hero who is to come and 
rescue her, and you are the hero who can 
do it if you will.” 

With that the fairy led him to a little 
pool close by, and bade him look in the 
water. When Teddy looked, he saw him¬ 
self standing there in the golden garden, 
and he did not appear as he ever had be¬ 
fore. He was tall and strong and beauti¬ 
ful, like a hero. 

“ Yes,” said Teddy, “ I will do it.” 

At these words, from the grass, the 
bushes, and the trees around, suddenly 
started a flock of golden birds. They cir¬ 
cled about and over him, clapping their 


16 The Counterpane Fairy. 

wings and singing triumphantly. Their 
song reminded Teddy of the blackbirds 
that sang on the lawn at home in the early 
spring, when the daffodils were up. Then 
in a moment they were all gone, and the 
garden was still again. 

Their song had filled his heart with a 
longing for great deeds, and, without 
pausing longer, he ran to the glass steps 
and began to mount them. 

Up and up and up he went. Once he 
turned and waved his hand to the Coun¬ 
terpane Fairy in the golden garden far 
below. She waved her hand in answer, 
and he heard her voice faint and clear. 
“ Good-bye ! Good-bye ! Be brave and 
strong, and beware of that that is little 
and gray.” 

Then Teddy turned his face toward 
the castle, and in a moment he was stand¬ 
ing before the great shining gates. 

He raised his hand and struck bravely 
upon the door. There was no answer. 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 17 


Again he struck upon it, and his blow 
rang through the hall iqside; then he 
opened the door and went in. 

The hall was five-sided, and all of pure 
gold, as clear and shining as glass. Upon 
three sides of it were three arched doors; 
one was of emerald, one was of ruby, 
and one was of diamond; they were 
arched, and tall, and wide,—fit for a hero 
to go through. The question was, behind 
which one lay the enchanted princess. 

While Teddy stood there looking at 
them and wondering, he heard a little thin 
voice, that seemed to be singing to itself, 
and this is what it sang: 

“ In and out and out and in, 

Quick as a flash I weave and spin. 

Some may mistake and some forget, 

But I ’ll have my spider-web finished yet.” 

When Teddy heard the song, he knew 
that someone must be awake in the en¬ 
chanted castle, so he began looking about 
him. 


18 The Counterpane Fairy. 

On the fourth side of the wall there 
hung a curtain of silvery-gray spider-web, 
and the voice seemed to come from it. 
The hero went toward it, but he saw 
nothing, for the spider that was spinning 
it moved so fast that no eyes could follow 
it. Presently it paused up in the left- 
hand corner of the web, and then Teddy 
saw it. It looked very little to have spun 
all that curtain of silvery web. 

As Teddy stood looking at it, it began 
to sing again : 

“ Here in my shining web I sit, 

To look about and rest a bit. 

I rest myself a bit and then, 

Quick as a flash, I begin again." 

“ Mistress Spinner ! Mistress Spinner ! ” 
cried Teddy. “ Can you tell me where to 
find the enchanted princess who lies asleep 
waiting for me to come and rescue her ? ” 

The spider sat quite still for a while, and 
then it said in a voice as thin as a hair: 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 19 

“ You must go through the emerald door ; 
you must go through the emerald door. 
What so fit as the emerald door for the 
hero who would do great deeds ? ” 

Teddy did not so much as stay to thank 
the little gray spinner, he was in such a 
hurry to find the princess, but turning he 
sprang to the emerald door, flung it open, 
and stepped outside. 

He found himself standing on the glass 
steps, and as his foot touched the topmost 
one the whole flight closed up like an um¬ 
brella, and in a moment Teddy was sliding 
down the smooth glass plane, faster and 
faster and faster until he could hardly catch 
his breath. 

The next thing he knew he was standing 
in the golden garden, and there was the 
Counterpane Fairy beside him looking at 
him sadly. “ You should have known bet¬ 
ter than to try the emerald door,” she 
said ; “ and now shall we break the story ? ” 
“ Oh, no, no !” cried Teddy, and he was 


20 The Counterpane Fairy. 

still the hero. “ Let me try once more, 
for it may be I can yet save the princess.” 

Then the Counterpane Fairy smiled. 
“Very well,” she said, “you shall try 
again : but remember what I told you, 
beware of that that is little and gray, and 
take this with you, for it may be of use.” 
Stooping, she picked a blade of grass from 
the ground and handed it to him. 

The hero took it wondering, and in his 
hands it was changed to a sword that shone 
so brightly that it dazzled his eyes. Then 
he turned, and there was the long flight of 
glass steps leading up to the golden castle 
just as before; so thrusting the magic sword 
into his belt, he ran nimbly up and up and 
up, and not until he reached the very top¬ 
most step did he turn and look back to 
wave farewell to the Counterpane Fairy 
below. She waved her hand to him. “ Re¬ 
member,” she called, “ beware of what is 
little and gray.” 

He opened the door and went into the 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 


21 


five-sided golden hall, and there were the 
three doors just as before, and the spider 
spinning and singing on the fourth side : 

“ Now the brave hero is wiser indeed ; 

He may have failed once, but he still may succeed. 

Dull are the emeralds ; diamonds are bright ; 

So is his wisdom that shines as the light.” 

“The diamond door!” cried Teddy. 
“ Yes, that is the door I should have tried. 
How could I have thought the emerald 
door was it?” and opening the diamond 
door he stepped through it. 

He hardly had time to see that he was 
standing at the top of the glass steps, be¬ 
fore—br-r-r-r !—they had shut up again in¬ 
to a smooth glass hill, and there he was 
spinning down them so fast that the wind 
whistled past his ears. 

In less time than it takes to tell, he was 
back again for the third time in the golden 
garden, with the Counterpane Fairy stand¬ 
ing before him, and he was ashamed to 
raise his eyes. 


22 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“So!” said the Counterpane Fairy. 
“ Did you know no better than to open 
the diamond door?” 

“ No,” said Teddy, “ I knew no better.” 

“ Then,” said the fairy, “ if you can pay 
no better heed to my warnings than that, 
the princess must wait for another hero, 
for you are not the one.” 

“ Let me try but once more,” cried 
Teddy, “for this time I shall surely find 
her.” 

“ Then you may try once more and for 
the last time,” said the fairy, “but beware 
of what is little and gray.” Stooping she 
picked from the grass beside her a fallen 
acorn cup and handed it to him. “ Take 
this with you,” she said, “ for it may serve 
you well.” 

As he took it from her, it was changed 
in his hand to a goblet of gold set round 
with precious stones. He thrust it into 
his bosom, for he was in haste, and turn¬ 
ing he ran for the third time up the flight 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 23 

of glass steps. This time so eager was he 
that he never once paused to look back, 
but all the time he ran on up and up he 
was wondering what it was that she meant 
about her warning. She had said, “ Be¬ 
ware of what is little and gray.” What 
had he seen that was little and gray ? 

As soon as he reached the great golden 
hall he walked over to the curtain of 
spider-web. The spider was spinning so 
fast that it was little more than a gray 
streak, but presently it stopped up in the 
left-hand corner of the web. As the 
hero looked at it he saw that it was little 
and gray. Then it began to sing to him 
in its little thin voice : 

“ Great hero, wiser than ever before, 

Try the red door ; try the red door. 

Open the door that is ruby, and then 

You never need search for the princess again.” 

“ No, I will not open the ruby door,” 
cried Teddy. “ Twice have you sent me 


24 The Counterpane Fairy. 

back to the golden garden, and now you 
shall fool me no more.” 

As he said this he saw that one corner 
of the spider-web curtain was still unfin¬ 
ished, in spite of the spiders haste, and 
underneath was something that looked 
like a little yellow door. Then suddenly 
he knew that that was the door he must 
go through. He caught hold of the cur¬ 
tain and pulled, but it was as strong as 
steel. Quick as a flash he snatched from 
his belt the magic sword, and with one 
blow the curtain was cut in two, and fell 
at his feet. 

He heard the little gray spider calling 
to him in its thin voice, but he paid no 
heed, for he had opened the little yellow 
door and stooped his head and entered. 

Beyond was a great courtyard all of 
gold, and with a fountain leaping and 
splashing back into a golden basin in the 
middle. But what he saw first of all was 
the enchanted princess, who lay stretched 


The Princess of the Golden Castle. 25 

out as if asleep upon a couch all covered 
with cloth of gold. He knew she was a 
princess, because she was so beautiful and 
because she wore a golden crown. 

He stood looking at her without stir¬ 
ring, and at last he whispered : “ Princess ! 
Princess ! I have come to save you.” 

Still she did not stir. He bent and 
touched her, but she lay there in her en¬ 
chanted sleep, and her eyes did not open. 
Then Teddy looked about him, and seeing 
the fountain he drew the magic cup from 
his bosom and, filling it, sprinkled the hands 
and face of the princess with the water. 

Then her eyes opened and she raised 
herself upon her elbow and smiled. “ Have 
you come at last ? ” she cried. 

“ Yes,” answered Teddy, “ I have come.” 

The princess looked about her. “ But 
what became of the spider ? ” she said. 
Then Teddy, too, looked about, and there 
was the spider running across the floor 
toward where the princess lay. 


26 The Counterpane Fairy. 

Quickly he sprang from her side and 
set his foot upon it. There was a thin 
squeak and then—there was nothing left 
of the little gray spinner but a tiny gray 
smudge on the floor. 

Instantly the golden castle was shaken 
from top to bottom, and there was a sound 
of many voices shouting outside. The 
princess rose to her feet and caught the 
hero by the hand. “You have broken 
the enchantment,” she cried, “ and now 
you shall be the King of the Golden 
Castle and reign with me.” 

“ Oh, but I can’t, ’’said Teddy, “ because 
—because-” 

But the princess drew him out with 
her through the hall, and there they were 
at the head of the flight of glass steps. 
A great host of soldiers and courtiers 
were running up it. They were dressed 
in cloth of gold, and they shouted at 
the sight of Teddy : “ Hail to the hero ! 
Hail to the hero ! ” and Teddy knew them 



The Princess of the Golden Castle. 27 

by their voices for the golden birds that 
had fluttered around him in the garden 
below. 

“ And all this is yours,” said the beauti¬ 
ful princess, turning toward him with- 


“ So that is the story of the yellow 
square,” said the Counterpane Fairy. 

Teddy looked about him. The golden 
castle was gone, and the stairs, and the 
shouting courtiers. He was lying in bed 
with the silk coverlet over his little knees, 
and Hannah was still singing in the 
kitchen below. 

“ Did you like it ?” asked the fairy. 

Teddy heaved a deep sigh. “Oh! 
was n’t it beautiful ? ” he said. Then he 
lay for a while thinking and smiling. 
“Wasn’t the princess lovely?” he whis¬ 
pered half to himself. 

The Counterpane Fairy got up slowly 
and stiffly, and picked up the staff that 



28 The Counterpane Fairy. 

she had laid down beside her. “Well, I 
must be journeying on,” she said. 

“Oh, no, no !” cried Teddy. “ Please 
don’t go yet.” 

“ Yes, I must,” said the Counterpane 
Fairy. “ I hear your mother coming.” 

“ But will you come back again ? ” cried 
T eddy. 

The Counterpane Fairy made no an¬ 
swer. She was walking down the other 
side of the bedquilt hill, and Teddy heard 
her voice, little and thin, dying away in 
the distance : “ Oh dear, dear, dear! 
What a hill to go down ! What a hill it 
is ! Oh dear, dear, dear ! ” 

Then the door opened and his mother 
came in. She was looking rested, and 
she smiled at him lovingly, but the little 
brown Counterpane Fairy was gone. 



CHAPTER SECOND. 


THE OWLS AND THE GAMBLESOME ELF. 


TL HE next morning when Teddy awoke 
it was still very early ; so early that 
even Hannah was not yet stirring. 

Outside everything was wrapped in a 
silvery mist, and now and then a drop of 
moisture plumped down on the porch roof. 

Teddy lay still for a while, growing 
wider and wider awake, and then he be¬ 
gan to stir restlessly and wish that his 
mother would come. After a while he 
called her, but the house was so silent that 


29 









30 The Counterpane Fairy. 

he did n’t like to call very loudly, and there 
was no answer. 

He thought he would call again, and then 
suddenly he remembered the Counterpane 
Fairy, and wondered if she would like little 
boys who called their mothers so early. 

He turned over in bed, and raising his 
knees into a hill stared at the yellow silk 
square and thought of the wonderful 
golden castle where she had taken him the 
day before. He wished he knew what all 
the bird people would have done when they 
reached the top of the stairs. He thought 
they would have put a golden crown on 
his head and made him a king. 

And the princess was so beautiful he 
longed to see her again. How surprised 
Hannah would have been if she had heard 
voices, and had come up-stairs to see who 
it was, and had found the beautiful prin¬ 
cess sitting with him, and had seen a golden 
crown on his head ! If she only knew about 
it she would never call him a mischievous 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 31 

boy again. He had done a great deal more 
than Hannah could. 

“ Oh dear, oh dear ! ” said a little voice 
just back of his knees ; “ almost at the top, 
anyway.” Teddy knew the voice; it was 
that of the Counterpane Fairy, and there 
was the tip of her brown hood showing 
over his knees. He watched, breathless 
with eagerness, until he saw her face ap¬ 
pear above them, and then he cried out: 
“ I wondered whether you would come ; 
I ’m so glad. Are you going to show me 
another story, and will you stay a long 
while ? ” 

The Counterpane Fairy said nothing 
until she had sat down on top of his knees 
for a while and caught her breath, and then 
she said: “Well, well! It’s steeper than 
it was yesterday. I thought I should never 
get across that satin square, it was so 
slippery.” 

“Shall I put my knees down?” asked 
Teddy, moving them. 


32 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ For mercy’s sake ! no,” said the fairy, 
clutching at the quilt. “ You might upset 
me. Keep right still and I ’ll show you 
another story.” 

“Oh, yes !” cried Teddy; “please do; 
and let me go to the golden castle again.” 

“ No, I can’t do that,” said the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy, “ for that was yesterday’s 
story, and this will be another.” 

“But what became of the princess?” 
asked Teddy. 

“ Oh ! she married the hero, of course,” 
said the fairy. 

“ But I thought / was the hero.” 

“ There, there ! ” said the fairy, impa¬ 
tiently, “ I told you that was yesterday’s 
story, and if you want to see any more 
you must choose another square.” 

“Well, I will,” said Teddy. “May I 
choose that green square ? ” 

“Yes,” said the fairy. “Now fix your 
eyes on it while I count.” 

Teddy began to stare at the green square 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 33 

so hard that he scarcely winked, but he 
heard the Counterpane Fairy counting on 
in her thin little voice until she reached 

FORTY-NINE. 

The green square spread and grew just 
as the yellow one had done while she 
counted, until Teddy seemed drifting off 
into endless green spaces. Then the 
Counterpane Fairy clapped her hands and 
he saw that he was hovering over a grassy 
hillside. 

“ Now you are an elf, you know,” he 
heard the fairy say. 

At the bottom of the green hill there 
was a brook, and at the top was a line of 
shady green woods. Overhead the sky 
was very blue, with shining heaps of cot¬ 
tony white clouds ; a soft wind was blow¬ 
ing, but the sun was warm, and insects 
were buzzing past intent on business. A 
brown bird whirred by and dropped out 
of sight among the grasses. 

Teddy floated through the air lighter 


34 The Counterpane Fairy. 

than a feather, and he felt so happy that 
he clapped his hands together and turned 
head over heels in the air. As he came 
right side up again he saw a bit of thistle¬ 
down drifting on up the hill, and he was 
so little that when he flew after it and set 
himself astride of it, it seemed as big as a 
barrel to him. He floated on up the hill 
with it, and the wind was like a cushion 
behind him. 

As they reached the edge of the hill the 
thistle-down caught on a bush, and Teddy 
almost had his leg wedged between it and 
a leaf. He jumped off in a hurry, and 
stood looking about him and wondering 
what he should do next. 

Suddenly he saw something that made 
him open his eyes in astonishment. Four 
large black-and-yellow butterflies were tied 
to a knot on an old tree close by, but it 
was not at the butterflies themselves that 
he wondered, for he had often seen them 
flitting about the fields ; it was at the way 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 35 

they were loaded down with the strangest 
things : all sorts of fairy household fur¬ 
niture—little chairs and tables, bedsteads, 
tiny pots and pans, a great soup-kettle al¬ 
most as large as a huckleberry, two thistle¬ 
down mattresses, and a number of other 
things. All these were very neatly packed 
and tied between the butterflies’ wings 
with spider-web ropes. 

In the middle of the knot was a hole, 
but instead of being round, as a knot-hole 
generally is, it was square, and there was a 
little door fitted into it. 

Suddenly this door opened, and on the 
threshold of it stood a beautiful little fairy. 
She stood there looking about, and then 
she drew from her pocket a handkerchief, 
thin and delicate as gossamer, and wiped 
.her eyes. After that she began to sob, 
and Teddy knew that what he had thought 
was the buzzing of a bee inside the knot 
had really been the sound of her weeping. 

“ Hello ! ” called the elf. 


36 The Counterpane Fairy. 

The fairy stopped sobbing and looked 
about her. When she saw Teddy she 
stared at him for a moment and then she 
began to wipe her eyes and sob again. 

Teddy climbed up the branch of a black¬ 
berry bush until he was quite close to the 
knot-hole, and sat down on the stem and 
stared at her. “ What makes you cry ? ” 
he asked. 

Still the fairy said nothing, but she 
folded her little handkerchief, though it 
was quite wet, and put it carefully back 
into her pocket. 

Just then in the doorway at her side ap¬ 
peared another fairy. He was quite dif¬ 
ferent from her, though he, too, was very 
small. He was as withered as a dried pea, 
and looked as though he must be at least 
a hundred years old. 

“ Is everything packed up ? ” he asked 
in a querulous voice. Then his eyes fell 
on Teddy the elf. He scowled until 
his little pin-pricks of eyes almost dis- 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 37 

appeared. “ Ugh ! there s one of those 
nasty gamblesome elves,” he said. “Now 
mischief s sure to follow.” 

“ I ’m not a gamblesome elf! ” cried 
Teddy. 

“Yes you are!” said the withered old 
fairy. “You need n’t tell me! Look at 
your red cap and the way your toes turn 
down. I say you are a gamblesome elf.” 

Teddy looked at his toes and sure 
enough they did turn down. “ I wonder 
if I am a gamblesome elf,” he thought. 

But the old fairy paid no more attention 
to him. He seemed to be in a great 
hurry and very cross. He bustled in and 
out of the knot-hole, bringing a broom 
and an old coat that had been forgotten, 
and packed them on the butterflies, and 
then he helped the lady fairy on to one, 
and clambered on another himself. 

After they were all ready to start he 
found that he had forgotten to unhitch 
the butterflies, and grumbling and scold- 


38 The Counterpane Fairy. 

ing he clambered down again and untied 
them. Then he climbed back once more, 
and away they all flew down the hillside 
and out of sight, the lady fairy weeping 
all the time as though her heart would 
break. 

“ I wonder what she was crying about,” 
said the gamblesome elf to himself, as he 
stared after them. 

“ I can tell you that easily enough,” 
said a little voice so close to his elbow 
that it made him jump. 

He looked around and saw close to him 
a brown beetle, sitting on a blackberry 
leaf. Teddy looked at the beetle for 
a while in silence, and then he said, “ Well, 
why is it they ’re going ? ” 

“ It’s all because of old Mrs. Owl,” said 
the beetle. “ She and old Father Owl used 
to live deep in the woods in a hollow tree, 
but one time they determined to move out 
to the.edge of the hill, because the air was 
better, and what tree should they choose 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 39 

for their home but this very one where 
Granddaddy Thistletop has been living as 
long as I can remember. Then when the 
owls were all settled they began to com¬ 
plain. They said that Granddaddy This¬ 
tletop and Rosine were so noisy all day 
that they could n’t sleep. 

“After the little owls hatched out it was 
worse than ever, for the old mother said 
that every time Rosine cooked the din¬ 
ner it made the little owls sneeze, and 
so the fairies must go.” 

“ I would n’t have gone,” cried Teddy. 

“ Oh, yes you would,” said the beetle. 
“ The owls could have stopped up the doors 
and windows, or they could—well, they 
could have done almost anything, they ’re 
so big. You may go in and look at the 
house, if you want to. I have to go down 
the bush and see old Mrs. Ant. Good¬ 
bye ! I ’ll see you again after a while.” 

When the beetle had gone, Teddy 
climbed up to the knot-hole and went in. 


40 The Counterpane Fairy. 

There was a long entry as narrow and 
dark as a mouse-hole, and with doors 
opening off from it here and there. At 
the end of the hall was a room that must 
have been the kitchen. It was very bare 
and lonely now, and there was a fireplace 
at one end with a streak of light shining 
down through the chimney. 

While Teddy was standing by the 
chimney, he heard a rustling and stirring 
about overhead; one of the little owls 
clicked its beak in its sleep, and he heard 
a sleepy, whining voice : “ Now just you 
stop scrouging me. Screecher is scroug- 
ing me ! ” 

Then he heard the Mother Owl: 
“ Hus-s-s-h ! Hus-s-s-h ! Go to sleep ; 
it’s broad daylight yet.” After that all 
was still again. 

“ I wish,” thought Teddy to himself, 
“ that I could do something to make the 
owls go away.” Then he began to giggle 
to himself, and put both hands over his 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 41 

mouth so that the owls up above would n’t 
hear him. 

He tiptoed back to the door in the 
knot-hole, and looked down at a bush with 
long thorns on it, that grew close by. 
“ I ’ll do it,” he said to himself; “ I ’ll 
break off the thorns and put them in the 
nest, so that the owls just can’t stay there.” 
In a moment he was down on the bush 
and tugging at a tough thorn. 

As soon as it broke off, he lifted it on 
his shoulder and clambered up the rough 
bark of the tree to the great black hole 
where the owls lived. When he looked 
down into it, there they were in the nest, 
fluffy and gray, and fast asleep. Very 
quietly he slipped down, and set the thorn 
in the side of the nest, with the point stick¬ 
ing out. After that, he softly clambered 
out again. 

Up and down, up and down the tree he 
climbed again and again, carrying thorns 
and quietly setting them in the nest, and 


42 The Counterpane Fairy. 

as he went up and down he kept whisper¬ 
ing to himself : “I’m a gamblesome elf; 
oh, yes, indeed I am a gamblesome elf.” 

After he thought he had put enough in 
the nest, he went into old Granddaddy 
Thistletop’s kitchen, ^and, crouching down 
by the fireplace, he listened. It was get¬ 
ting to be twilight now, and the owls were 
beginning to stir. Presently he heard a 
voice cry out: “ Ouch ! Flipperty is stick¬ 
ing his toes into me.” 

“ No I ain’t, neither,” said another 
voice. “It’s Pinny-winny. There, she’s 
doing it to me, too. Now just you stop.” 

“ ’T ain’t me,” cried a little squeaky 
voice ; “ it’s Screecher hisself. Ow ! Ow ! 
I’m going to tell,” and she began to cry. 

“You naughty little owls,” cried the 
Mother Owl’s voice, “ what do you mean 
by digging your little sister ? ” 

“ I did n’t,” cried Screecher and Flip¬ 
perty, together. “ Ouch ! Ouch ! There’s 
something sharp in the nest.” 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 43 

“ My dear,” said old Father Owl’s voice 
from the branch outside, “ can’t you keep 
those children quiet ? ” 

“ Quiet indeed ! ” cried old Mother Owl. 
“ Here is the nest all set full of thorns, 
and you expect them to be quiet. No 
wonder the poor children make a noise. 
Just you come here and help me get the 
thorns out.” 

“ Thorns ! ” cried Father Owl. “ How 
did they get in there ? ” 

“ That’s more than I can tell,” said the 
Mother Owl. “ Perhaps it’s old Grand- 
daddy Thistletop’s doings. I thought 
those fairies had gone away, but they 
must be down there* still. I ’ll just fly 
down and see, and if they are, I ’ll make 
them sorry enough.” 

With that, down flew the Mother Owl, 
and putting one big yellow eye at the 
kitchen window, she looked in. “ Who- 
0-0 ! you fairies,” she cried, “ are you in 
there still ? ” 


44 The Counterpane Fairy. 

At first, her eye looked so very big and 
yellow that Teddy was frightened. Then 
he remembered that he was a gamblesome 
elf, so he made a face at her, and began 
to hop up and down and twirl about on 
his toes, singing: 

“ I won't go away ! I won’t go away ! 

I '11 stay all night, and I ’ll stay all day. 

Oh, my cap and toes ! I’m a gamblesome elf. 

Old owl, you had better look out for yourself.” 

The old owl looked in for a moment, 
and then without a word she flew back to 
her nest as fast as she could. Teddy ran 
over to the chimney and listened. He 
heard the old owl brush into the hollow 
above, and then he heard her saying in a 
frightened voice : “ Husband, husband, 

what do you think ! A gamblesome elf 
has come to live in old Granddaddy 
Thistletop’s house.” 

“ Oh, my tail-feathers ! ” cried old Father 
Owl aghast. “ This is a bad business; 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 45 

we ’ll be having trouble and mischief all 
the time now. It would have been better 
if we had let old Thistletop stay. What 
shall we do ?” 

“ Do ! do ! ” cried old Mother Owl in 
an exasperated voice ; “ what is there to 
do, I should like to know, but to get the 
children away ? I would n’t keep them 
in the same tree with that gamblesome elf 
—no, not a night longer—for all the mice 
you could offer me.” 

“But how can we get them away?” 
asked old Father Owl. “ They can’t fly.” 

“ No, we can’t fly!” cried all the little 
owls. “ Oh, what shall we do ? Ow ! 
Ow ! ” 

“ Can’t fly ! They v’e got to fly,” said 
Mother Owl, “ and you and I must help 
them. Back to the old tree we go this 
very night.” 

After that there was a great to-do up in 
the hollow. Teddy watched it all lying 
on his stomach in the door of the knot- 


4.6 The Counterpane Fairy. 

hole, for it was moonlight by this time and 
almost as bright as day. 

The little owls got up on the edge of 
the hollow and there they sat, teetering 
and flapping and afraid to fly. Their 
mother grew crosser and crosser, and at 
last she got back of them and gave them 
a push, and then down they went, flutter¬ 
ing and tumbling and bumping into the 
tree-trunks. 

The Father Owl sailed about from 
branch to branch, calling, “ Who-o-o-o ! 
Who-o-o! Come on ! Spread your wings 
and go like this. Who-o-o-o! ” and 
then he would sail on to another bush ; 
but the Mother Owl flew down beside 
them and showed them how to spread 
their wings, and pushed them with her 
beak, and gradually they fluttered farther 
and farther into the darkling woods, their 
cries growing fainter and then dying away 
until all Teddy could hear was the Father 
Owls voice, very faint and far away, 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 47 

“ Who-o-o ! Who-o-o !” Then it too died 
away, and the woods were still. 

After a while the moon set and Teddy 
began to feel very sleepy. 

Then a little breeze sprang up; the 
light grew clearer and the east was red, 
and at last the sun peeped over the top of 
the hill opposite. 

As the first beam struck old Granddaddy 
Thistletop’s tree, Teddy started to his 
knees, gazing out down the hill-slope. 
There were the four black-and-yellow but¬ 
terflies flying directly toward the tree as 
fast as their wings could carry them, and 
on the two foremost ones were old Grand¬ 
daddy Thistletop himself and the beauti¬ 
ful Rosine. 

They drew rein at the knot-hole, and 
the old fairy, skipping from his butterfly 
and never pausing to fasten it, tottered 
straight to Teddy and threw his arms 
about his neck. “ Our preserver ! ” he 
cried. “ And to think I should have 


48 The Counterpane Fairy. 

called you a gamblesome elf ! But never 
mind; I will make it up to you.” 

Suddenly he turned and caught the 
blushing Rosine by the hand. “ Here ! ” 
he cried ; “ she is yours, and you shall live 
with us, and learn to turn your toes up, 
and we will all be happy together.” 

“ But—but—” cried Teddy, starting 
back, “ don’t you know ? I’m not an 
elf at all. I’m-” 

“ Well, well! Here we are back again,” 
said the Counterpane Fairy, “and stiff 
enough I feel after all that journeying.” 

“Oh! wasn’t it funny?” said Teddy, 
and his knees shook with laughter. 
“ They really thought I was a gamble- 
some elf.” 

“ Take care ! ” cried the fairy. “ There 
you are shaking your knees again. I 
think, my dear, that if you were to lower 
them very, very carefully, the hill would 
not be quite so steep.” 


The Owls and the Gamblesome Elf. 49 

“Yes, ma’am, I’ll be careful,” said 
Teddy, beginning very slowly to slide his 
feet down in the bed. Suddenly, the 
door-knob turned, and Teddy gave a 
start;—quick as a flash the Counterpane 
Fairy had disappeared. 

His mother was coming in carrying his 
breakfast and a little vase of violets on a 
tray. 

“ Why, my darling, what a bright, 
happy face !” she said. “ I think my little 
boy must be feeling better this morning.” 



CHAPTER THIRD. 

STARLEIN AND SILVERLING. 

THOMAS, Ann McFinney’s 
downstairs to see you about 
that sewing you said she could do for 
you,” said Hannah, putting her head in at 
the door. Mamma was sitting close to 
the bed playing a game of Old Maid with 
Teddy. 

“Very well, Hannah; tell her I’ll be 
there in a moment,” she said. 

“ Oh, please don’t go yet,” said Teddy. 
“ It’s my draw. Match ! You ’re the old 
maid. Oh, Mamma! You’re an old 


50 











Starlein and Silverling. 51 

maid ! ” And he pointed his finger at her 
and laughed. 

“ Why, so I am,” said mamma. “ Now 
you can shuffle the cards, and when I 
come back we ’ll have another game.” 

“ Don’t stay long,” begged Teddy. 

“ I ’ll come back as soon as I can,” said 
mamma, and then she went out. 

Teddy lay propped up on the pillow 
and shuffled and shuffled the cards, and 
wished his mother would hurry. He did 
not like Ann McFinney, for when she 
came she always cried, and wiped her 
eyes on the corner of her apron, and told 
how her husband was out of work, and 
the children needed shoes. 

Now it was some time before mamma 
came back, and when she did she had her 
bonnet on. “ Darling,” she said, “ I have 
to go out for a while. Mrs. McFinney’s 
baby’s sick, and I’ve promised the poor 
thing to come over and see it. I won’t 
be gone long, and when I come back I ’ll 


52 The Counterpane Fairy. 

bring you a sheet of paper soldiers to cut 
out.” 

41 1’d rather have a paper circus,” said 
Teddy. 

“Very well,” said mamma, “I’ll bring 
you a circus instead.” Then she gave 
him some picture-books to look at while 
she was out, and kissed him good-bye, 
telling him to be a good boy. 

She went out through the next room, 
and he heard her pause to wind the music- 
box and set it playing. “ There,” she 
called back to him, “ you ’ll have the music 
to keep you company,” and then she went 
on down-stairs. 

After she had gone Teddy lay fingering 
the books and not caring to open them, he 
knew them so well. “ Oh dear ! ” he sighed, 
“ I wish the Counterpane Fairy was here ! ” 

“ Oh dear, dear, dear! How steep this 
hill is ! ” said a little voice just back of his 
knees. “ Don’t break, my little staff, or 
down I ’ll go, head over heels to the bot> 


Starlein and Silverling. 53 

tom.” Teddy knew the voice well, and 
his heart gave a leap of pleasure. There 
was the pointed cap and the withered face 
of the Counterpane Fairy just appearing 
above the counterpane hill. 

“ Oh, Mrs. Fairy, I ’m so glad you came, 
and I have the loveliest square picked 
out! ” cried Teddy. “ I had n’t seen it be¬ 
fore, because it was the other side of my 
knees. It’s that white one with the silver 
leaves on it, and my mamma says it was 
a scrap left from her wedding dress.” 

“ Wait, wait,” said the fairy, “ till a body 
gets her breath. Now which one is it?” 

“ It’s that one,” said Teddy. “ Will you 
tell me about it ?” 

“Why, yes,” said the fairy, “if that’s 
the one you want. Now fix your eyes on 
it while I count.” 

Then the Counterpane Fairy began to 
count. He heard her voice going on and 
on and on. “ Forty-nine ! ” she cried. 


54 The Counterpane Fairy. 

When Teddy looked about him he saw 
that he was standing in a long hall of 
white marble veined with silver. There 
were arches and pillars of silver and all 
the walls were carved with lilies. 

Teddy walked slowly down this hall, and 
as he walked a rosy glow seemed to move 
with him. He looked down to see what 
made it, and found that he was dressed in 
a tunic of rose-colored silk, such as he had 
never seen before, and it was fastened 
about the waist with a golden girdle. His 
feet were bare, but the air was so mildly 
warm that the marble did not chill him. 

After a while, as he walked slowly and 
wonderingly down the hall, he turned a 
corner and found himself in another hall 
just like the first, only at one side there 
was a great crystal window, and sitting on 
a marble seat before it was the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy herself. She sat quite still as 
though she were listening, and she paid 
no attention to Teddy. 


Starlein and Silverling. 55 

He was sure it must be the Counterpane 
Fairy, for it looked like her, though she 
was quite large now ; she looked as large 
as a real woman. 

Teddy stood looking at her for a while, 
and waiting for her to see him, but she 
paid no attention, and so at last he whis¬ 
pered, “ Counterpane Fairy !” 

“ Hush ! ” said she. “ I’m listening.” 

Then Teddy listened too, and as soon 
as he did he heard a sound of music like 
that of the music-box in the nursery at 
home, only it was very much clearer, and 
sweeter, and fainter. 

It seemed to come from outside the 
crystal window, and looking through it 
Teddy saw that outside was the most 
beautiful garden he had ever seen. The 
grass of the garden was a silvery green ; 
and the paths were white. The leaves of 
the trees were lined with silver, and the 
branches hung with shining fruit. There 
were lilies growing beside the paths, and 


56 The Counterpane Fairy. 

in the centre of the garden a fountain 
leaped and fell back into a marble basin. 
The water sparkled as though it were 
made of diamonds, and as Teddy listened 
he knew that the music he heard was the 
voice of the fountain. 

Presently it ceased and then the fairy 
turned to him and smiled. 

“ Oh, Counterpane Fairy !” cried Teddy, 
“ may I go out into that garden ?” 

“ That I don’t know,” said the fairy, 
“but if you want to get there the best 
thing for you to do is to find Starlein and 
Silverling, for they are the only ones who 
can show you the way into the garden.” 

“Where are they?” asked Teddy. 

“ I can’t tell you that, either,” said the 
fairy. “ but they ’re somewhere in the halls.” 

“ I ’ll go find them,” cried Teddy, and 
without waiting any longer he turned and 
ran down the hall as fast as he could, he 
was in such haste to find them and get 
them to show him the way into the garden. 


Starlein and Silverling. 57 

On and on he ran, through one hall 
after another, through arched doorways, 
and along echoing corridors, until he felt 
all bewildered and out of breath. All the 
time he was running he seemed to hear 
the music of the singing fountain in his 
ears, but whenever he stopped to listen 
everything was still. 

He was so out of breath that he had 
begun to walk, when turning another cor¬ 
ner he suddenly saw before him a little 
girl who he somehow felt sure was Starlein. 

Her hair was of a silvery yellow and 
was like a mist about her head ; she was 
very beautiful and was dressed from head 
to foot in silver that shone and sparkled 
as she moved. Around her was flying a 
flock of white doves, and she was playing 
with them and talking. 

As soon as she saw Teddy she cried 
out, “ Oh, it s a little child ! ” and running 
down the hall to him, with her doves fly¬ 
ing about her, she put her little hands on 


58 The Counterpane Fairy. 

his cheeks and kissed him. Then she 
stood back and looked at him with her 
hands clasped. “You dear little boy!” 
she said. “ Where did you come from ? ” 

“ I came through the white square,” 
said Teddy. 

“ I don’t know the white square,” said 
the little girl, “ but I’m glad you came. 
I have n’t anyone to play with since Sil- 
verling went away.” 

“Where has Silverling gone?” asked 
Teddy. “ I must find him.” 

The little girl shook her head. “ I 
don’t know,” she said. “We quarrelled 
once and he went away. He must be in 
some of the halls, but I’ve been hunting 
and hunting ever since and I can’t find 
him.” 

Then Teddy told her how the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy had said that he must find 
Silverling and Starlein and that then per¬ 
haps he could get into the garden where 
the singing fountain was. 


Starlein and Silverling. 59 

The little girl shook her head again. 
“ I am Starlein,” she said, “ but I can’t 
take you into the garden, because I have 
never found the gate into it since Silver- 
ling went away,” and she went over and sat 
down on a marble bench beside the wall, 
and all the doves settled about her on 
her knees and shoulders. 

“ Never mind,” cried Teddy, bravely, 
“ you wait here and I ’ll go and find 
him. I found you and I ’ll find him 
too.” 

Turning he ran down the hall and 
through an arched way into another hall, 
and there, far, far down at the other end, 
he saw a little boy dressed in silver, who 
was tossing a silver ball up into the air 
and catching it again. 

When he saw Teddy he slipped the 
ball into his pocket and ran to meet him, 
leaping with delight and clapping his hands. 
“ Oh, little boy ! little boy ! ” he cried, 
“ will you come and play with me ? ” 


60 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“Are you Silverling ? ” cried Teddy, 
breathlessly. 

“Yes,” said the little boy. 

“ Then come ! come quick ! ” cried 
Teddy. “ Starlein is just around the cor¬ 
ner, and she is waiting for you to come 
and show us the way into the garden 
where the singing fountain is.” 

He caught Silverling by the hand and 
without another word they ran as fast as 
they could up the hall and around the cor¬ 
ner, through the silver archway, and into 
the other hall. There Teddy stopped 
short, looking blankly about him. Star¬ 
lein was gone. 

Silverling shook his head sadly. “ I 
knew how it would be,” he said. “ I’ve 
been hunting for her ever since we quar¬ 
relled, but I can’t find her, and I can’t 
find the way into the garden of the sing¬ 
ing fountain either.” 

“What did you quarrel about?” asked 
Teddy. 


Starlein and Silverling. 61 

“We quarrelled about this,” said the 
little boy, touching a slender golden chain 
that hung around his neck. “We found 
it in the garden and we quarrelled about 
who should wear it, but I’d be so glad 
to give it to Starlein now if she would 
only come back again.” 

“ Well, wait! ” said Teddy. “ She can’t 
be far away and I ’ll go and find her.” 

“ No, no ! ” cried Silverling. “ You can’t 
find her, and I ’ll lose you too. Stay here 
awhile, little boy, and play with me, for 
I ’m very lonely. Look ! Let’s play 
with my silver ball,” and taking it from 
his pocket he tossed it to Teddy. Teddy 
caught it and threw it back to him, and 
so they played together in the marble hall, 
tossing the silver ball and shouting with 
laughter. 

At last Silverling missed the ball, and as 
it rolled on down the hall he ran after it, 
stooping and trying to catch it, but al¬ 
ways just missing. Teddy shouted and 


62 The Counterpane Fairy. 

clapped his hands, jumping up and down 
with his bare feet, and then he stood still 
watching Silverling as he ran far, far down 
the hall. 

As he stood thus, suddenly he heard 
from just around the corner the cooing of 
Starleins doves. 

He did not stop a moment, but turning 
ran around into the next hall, and there 
sure enough was Starlein with her doves 
about her. 

“ Oh, little boy ! ” she cried, “ I was 
afraid I had lost you.” 

But Teddy caught her by the hand. 
“Come quick!” he cried, “I have found 
Silverling.” 

They ran together into the hall where 
a moment ago Silverling had been play¬ 
ing with the silver ball, but it was vacant 
now ; Silverling was gone. 

“ Well, I never ! ” said Teddy. Then he 
turned to Starlein. “Starlein, you should n’t 
have gone away when I told you not to.” 


Starlein and Silverling. 63 

“ I did n’t,” said Starlein. “ I stayed 
right there.” 

Teddy thought awhile. “ Then it must 
have been the wrong hall,” he said. “ But 
never mind! I ’ll find him again, and 
this time I ’ll surely bring him to you ; 
only wait here no matter how long it is.” 

“ Stop ! oh, stop ! ” cried Starlein. She 
caught one of her doves in her hands and 
held it out to Teddy. “ Here, little boy,” 
she said ; “take this with you, and if you 
can’t find me again, give it to Silverling 
and tell him he is to keep it for his very 
own.” 

“Yes, I will,” said Teddy, and he took 
the dove and put it in the bosom of his 
tunic, and it nestled there all warm and 
soft and still. 

Then he turned and walked quietly 
down the hall and into another. He 
went on and on, but he did not run and 
jump now, for he was thinking. After a 
while, when he turned into another hall he 


64 The Counterpane Fairy. 

once more saw Silverling at play with his 
silver ball. 

“Did you find her?” cried Silverling, 
eagerly. 

“ Yes,” said Teddy, “ I found her, and 
she sent you a dove for your very own ; 
but, Silverling, I think this. I think the 
only way for us ever to find her together 
is for us to set the dove free, and to follow 
it when it flies back to her.” 

“ But we could n’t follow it,” said Sil¬ 
verling. “It would fly so fast that it would 
be out of sight in a minute.” 

“ I know,” said Teddy, “but we could 
tie something to it.” 

“What could we fasten to it?” asked 
Silverling. 

The two little boys stood looking about 
them and wondering what they could use. 
Suddenly Teddy clapped his hands so that 
the dove in his tunic started. “We’ll 
fasten the end of your golden chain to it,” 
he cried. 


Starlein and Silverling. 65 

No sooner said than done. In a mo¬ 
ment Silverling had taken the chain from 
his neck and unfastened the ends. It was 
so long that it had been twisted several 
times around his neck. Very gently they 
took the dove and fastened the chain to 
its leg, and then they let it go. 

It fluttered up over their heads and 
circled about them once or twice, and then 
it flew on down the hall with the little boys 
following it. 

They turned many a corner and went 
through many a door, and at last they came 
into a hall and there—there was Starlein 
waiting for them with her doves about 
her. 

“ Oh, Starlein !” cried Silverling. 

“ Oh, Silverling ! ” cried Starlein. 

They ran to each other and threw their 
arms about each other’s necks and kissed, 
while the white doves flew circling about 
them. Then they told each other how 
sorry they were that they had quarrelled, 


66 The Counterpane Fairy. 

and that they would never do>it any more, 
and then they kissed again. 

“ And you may have the golden chain, 
Starlein,” said Silverling. 

“ No, no ! you must keep it,” said Star¬ 
lein. 

“ Oh, I know what we ’ll do ! ” cried Sil¬ 
verling ; “ we ’ll give it to this little boy, 
because if it had n’t been for him we 
would n’t have found each other.” 

“ Oh, yes ! ” said Starlein. 

But Teddy held up his hand— 
“ Hush ! ” he whispered ; “ don’t you hear 
it?” 

Then they all listened, and sweeter and 
clearer than ever before they heard the 
voice of the singing fountain in the beauti¬ 
ful garden. 

“ It is the fountain ! ” cried Starlein and 
Silverling, half fearfully. 

They each caught Teddy by the hand, 
and all ran down the hall together, and 
the very first corner that they turned 


Starlein and Silverling. 67 

they found themselves at the door of the 
garden. 

The wind was blowing the lilies, the 
fruit on the wonderful trees shone and 
glistened in the sunlight, and the fountain 
—ah ! the fountain was no longer sing¬ 
ing, for the music-box in the nursery had 
run down. 

Teddy looked about him. Instead of 
the garden there was the flowery India- 
room. The clock ticked, the fire crackled ; 
—he was back in bed once more, and he 
heard mamma speaking to Hannah in the 
hall outside, so he knew she was home 
again. 

“ And that is the end of that story,” 
said the Fairy of the Counterpane. 



CHAPTER FOURTH. 

THE MAGIC CIRCUS. 

^£EDDY was still in bed, though the 
doctor had said that very soon he 
might have the big chair wheeled up to 
the window and sit there awhile. Now 
he was propped up against the pil¬ 
lows playing with the paper circus his 
mother had brought to him the day be¬ 
fore. 

His little cousin Harriett had come in 
yesterday to spend the afternoon with him, 
and together they had cut out the figures 
—the clown, the ring-master, the pretty 
68 










The Magic Circus. 69 

lady on the white horse, the acrobat on his 
coal-black steed, and all the rest. 

This morning he had put some large 
books under the bedquilt, and smoothed 
it over them so as to make a flat plane, 
and was amusing himself setting the circus 
out, and arranging his soldiers in a long 
procession as if they were the audience 
coming to see it. 

He seemed so well entertained that his 
mother said she would go over to the sew¬ 
ing-room for a little while to run up some 
seams on the machine. 

When Teddy was left alone he still 
went on playing very happily, but as he 
set out the soldiers two by two, he was 
really thinking of the Counterpane Fairy 
and her wonderful stories. 

The evening before he had fallen asleep 
while his mother was reading something 
to his father (for they both sat in Teddy’s 
room in the evenings now that he was ill), 
and when he woke they were talking to- 


70 The Counterpane Fairy. 

gether about him. They did not see that 
his eyes were open, so they went on with 
what they were saying. It was his mother 
who was speaking. “He’s such an odd 
child,” she was saying; “just now he is 
full of this idea of the Counterpane Fairy 
and her stories, and he talks of her just as 
though she were real. I don’t know where 
he got the idea. It isn’t in any of his 
books and I thought you must have been 
telling him about it.” 

“ No,” said papa, “ I did n’t tell him.” 

“ Perhaps it was Harriett,” said mamma, 
and then she saw that he was awake and 
began to speak of something else. 

Teddy wished his mother could see the 
Counterpane Fairy herself, and then she 
would know that it was a real fairy and 
not a make-believe. When he saw the 
Counterpane Fairy again he was going to 
ask her if he might n’t take his mother 
into one of the stories with him. 

He was thinking of her so hard that it 


The Magic Circus. 71 

did not surprise him at all to hear her lit¬ 
tle thin voice just back of the counterpane 
hill. “ Oh dear, dear ! and the worst of it 
is that I hardly get to the top before I 
have to come down again.” 

“ Is that you, Counterpane Fairy ? ” 
called Teddy. 

“Yes it is,” said the fairy. “I’ll be 
there in a minute ” ; and soon she appeared 
above the top of the hill, and seated her¬ 
self on it to rest, and catch her breath. 
“ Dear, dear! ” she said, “ but it s a steep 
hill.” 

“ Mrs. Fairy,” said Teddy, “ I want 
to ask you something. You know my 
mother ?” 

“Yes,” said the Counterpane Fairy, “ I 
know who she is.” 

“Well,” said Teddy, “she’s just gone 
over into the sewing-room, and I want to 
know whether you won’t let me take her 
into a square sometime.” 

“ My mercy, no ! ” said the fairy. “ Have 


72 The Counterpane Fairy. 

you forgotten what I told you the first 
time I came?” 

“ What was that ?” 

“ I told you I went to see little boys 
and girls. I don’t go to see grown people. 
They would n’t believe in me.” 

“ My mother would,” said Teddy. “ She 
plays with me and she likes my books and 
I tell her all about you.” 

“ No, no! ” cried the Counterpane 
Fairy, “ I couldn’t think of it. I’m very 
glad to take you into my stories, but if 
you don’t care to go by yourself—” and 
she picked up her staff and rose as though 
she were going. 

“ Oh, I do, I do ! ” cried Teddy. “ Please 
don’t go away.” 

“Well, I won’t,” said the fairy, sitting 
down again, “ if you really want to 
show you another. Have you chosen a 
square ? ” 

“No, I have n’t yet,” said Teddy. He 
looked the squares over very carefully, 


The Magic Circus. 


73 


and at last he chose the black-and-white 
one where the circus was standing. 

“ Very good,” said the fairy. “Now I’m 
going to begin to count.” Teddy fixed 
his eyes on the square and she commenced. 

Gradually he began to feel as though 
the white silk of the square was a pale 
cloudy sky. Before him stretched a white 
streak, and in the distance were some 
things like black squares ; he did not 
know quite what. 

“ Forty-nine ! ” cried the fairy. 

When Teddy looked about him he and 
the Counterpane Fairy were journeying 
along a dusty white road together, and 
the fairy looked just as any little old 
woman might, except that her eyes were 
so bright behind her spectacles. 

Before them lay a city with black roofs 
and spires ; there was a sound of drums 
and music in the distance, and a faint noise 
as though a crowd of people were shout- 
ing a great way off. 


74 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ What are they doing over there ? ” 
asked Teddy, hurrying his steps a little. 
“ Is it a parade ? ” 

“ No,” said the fairy, “ it’s not a parade, 
but it is a grand merrymaking, and it’s be¬ 
cause of it that I’ve brought you here. 
But I’m tired and hungry, for we’ve come 
a long way, so let us sit down by the road¬ 
side a bit, and while we rest I ’ll tell you all 
about the goings on and what we have to 
do with them.” 

Teddy was quite willing, so he and the 
Counterpane Fairy sat down together on 
the soft grass beside the road, with the 
mild and misty sky overhead, and the 
fairy took from her pocket a piece of 
bread and cheese; she broke it in half 
and one part she gave to Teddy. It 
seemed to him that he had never tasted 
anything so good, for, as the fairy re¬ 
marked, they were both of them hungry. 

After they had finished it all to the very 
last bit, the fairy brushed the crumbs 


The Magic Circus. 


75 


from her lap, and, sitting there with the 
soft wind blowing about them and the 
black roofs of the city in the distance, the 
Counterpane Fairy told him the story of 
the King of the Black-Country and the 
Princess Aureline. 

“Par off yonder toward the east, where 
the sky looks so pale and bright,” began 
the fairy, “ there lives a king, who is 
called King Whitebeard, because his beard 
is as white as snow. He had only one child, 
a daughter named the Princess Aureline, 
and she was as beautiful as the day and as 
good as she was beautiful. 

“ Because she was so good and beautiful 
princes used to come from all over the 
world seeking her hand in marriage, and 
among them came the King of the Black- 
Country, the richest and most powerful of 
them all. 

“ The Princess Aureline would have 
nothing to say to him, however, because he 
was wicked as well as rich, so at last the 


76 The Counterpane Fairy. 

King of the Black-Country gathered his 
army together and marching against King 
Whitebeard he conquered him and carried 
off the Princess Aureline captive. 

“ Now there are great rejoicings in the 
Black King’s country, but the Princess 
Aureline sits and grieves all the time, and 
nothing the King can do can make her 
smile. The more the Black King does, 
the more she grieves, but she is so very 
beautiful that the King would deny her 
nothing except to let her go home to her 
father.” 

“ I should like to see a princess,” said 
Teddy. 

“ So you shall,” said the fairy, “ for 
you are a great magician now, and you 
have come here to do what no other hero 
in the world dares to do ; you have come 
to rescue the Princess Aureline and carry 
her back to her own country.” 

“ Do you mean I am a real magician ?” 
asked Teddy. 


The Magic Circus. 77 

“ Why, yes,” said the fairy. “ Don’t 
you see you are dressed in a magician’s 
robe ? And there is your magic-chest on 
the grass beside you. Look ! ” So saying 
the fairy drew a mirror of polished steel 
from under her cloak and held it up before 
Teddy, and as he looked into it he hardly 
knew himself; he was dressed in a black 
hood, and a long black robe strangely 
woven about the hem with characters in 
white, and he held a white staff in his hand. 
Beside him on the grass was a box bound 
round with iron, and that was his magic-box. 

After he had looked in the mirror for 
a while the fairy hid it away again under 
her cloak. “ Now come,” she said, “ for 
it is time we were journeying on.” 

“ But what have I in my box ? ” asked 
Teddy, as he picked it up and joined the 
fairy, who was already hobbling along 
toward the city. 

“ Don’t you remember?” said the fairy. 
“ It’s your circus.” 


78 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ Oh, yes, I remember now,” said 
Teddy. 

After a while he and the fairy reached 
the city, and everywhere along the street 
were people laughing and dancing and 
feasting, and all the houses were hung 
with white and black flags. The black 
flags were for the King of the Black- 
Country, and the white flags were for 
the Princess Aureline. Everywhere they 
came the people made way for them and 
whispered, “ Look ! look ! That is the 
great magician who has come to show his 
magic before the Princess Aureline.” 

At last they reached an open square, 
and there was the greatest crowd of all. 
On a raised platform covered with silver 
cloth, and with steps leading up to it, were 
two thrones; upon one of the thrones sat 
a tall, fierce-looking man dressed in black 
velvet, and with a crown upon his head 
cut entirely from one great black dia¬ 
mond ; upon the other throne sat a beau- 


The Magic Circus. 


79 


tiful young princess. She was as pale as 
a lily and as beautiful as the day, and was 
dressed in shimmering white. Her hands 
were clasped in her lap and her face was 
very sad. 

On the steps that led to this platform 
stood two heralds in black and white with 
trumpets in their hands, and all about 
were ranged soldiers two and two. They 
made Teddy think of the toy soldiers he 
had been playing with, only they were as 
big as men, and instead of being gay with 
red paint they were in black. 

As soon as Teddy and the Counterpane 
Fairy appeared in this square, the two 
heralds blew a loud blast and came down 
to meet them. “ Make way ! make way 
for the magician ! ” they cried, and they 
escorted him and the fairy through the 
crowd to the foot of the steps. 

The King of the Black-Country stared 
at him, and his eyes were so black and 
piercing that Teddy felt afraid. 


80 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“Are you the great magician?” he 
asked. 

“ Yes, I am,” answered Teddy, bowing. 

“ Then let us see some of this magic 
that we have been hearing about,” said 
the King; “ and harkye, Magician, if you 
can make the Princess smile you shall 
have whatsoever you wish, even to the 
half of my treasure.” 

Teddy bowed again, and then he set 
the chest on the ground, and drawing 
from his girdle an iron key he unlocked 
it and put back the lid. There was the 
paper circus, just as he and Harriett had 
cut it out: the acrobat and the lovely lady, 
the horses, the clown, the ring-master,— 
not one of them was left out. 

With his magic wand, Teddy drew upon 
the ground a circle, and then, while every¬ 
body round craned and stretched their 
necks to see what he was about, he took 
out the figures and set them, one by one, 
in the ring. Then he waved his wand 


The Magic Circus. 81 

over them and cried ‘ Abraca-dabraca- 
dee ! ” 

All the people stood on tiptoes, and 
the King himself leaned forward to see,— 
but nothing happened. 

“ Abraca-dabraca-dee ! ” cried Teddy 
again. 

Still nothing happened; he looked 
around at the crowd of people, at the 
grim-looking soldiers, and the King, and 
his heart sank. 

“ Abraca-dabraca-dee ! ” he cried for the 
third time, striking the ground with his 
wand. 

Then a wonderful thing happened. 

The circle he had drawn upon the ground 

began to spread, just as a circle does in 

the water after one has thrown a stone 

into it. Now it was a great circus ring, 

and the paper circus itself had changed to 

a real circus. The clown walked about, 

joking, with his hands in his pockets ; the 

ring-master cracked his whip; the paper 
6 


82 The Counterpane Fairy. 

horses were two magnificent steeds, one 
as black as night, and one as white as 
milk, that cantered round and round, while 
the music sounded, and all the people far 
away on the outside of the ring clapped 
and applauded. 

“Wonderful! wonderful!” cried the 
King of the Black-Country. 

But now there was something more 
that was wonderful. As the black horse 
cantered round, Teddy ran to him and 
leaped upon his back, light as a feather, and 
there he rode, his black robe with the white 
figures flying and fluttering around him. 

Then, still riding around, he unfastened 
his gown and threw it from him, and there 
he was dressed in white and silver, and 
his magic wand was changed to a little 
silver whip. 

After that he leaped up into the air, 
and turned a somersault, lighting again 
upon his horse, while the music played 
louder and louder. 


The Magic Circus. 


83 


Teddy rode round arid round, now rid¬ 
ing backward, now forward, now on one 
foot, now on his hands with his feet in the 
air. Then he leaped upright, and putting 
his fingers to his mouth he gave a shrill 
whistle. At that the white steed suddenly 
dashed into the ring and galloped up be¬ 
side the black one, and now Teddy rode 
with a foot on each. Faster and faster 
he rode, crying “ Houp-la!” and even the 
King clapped his hands. Once and twice 
he rode round the ring and past the plat¬ 
form, but as they came round for the third 
time, Teddy waved his whip in the air. 
“ Houp-la ! ” he cried. “ Up ! up ! ” 

With that his steeds suddenly leaped 
from the ring and up the steps of the plat¬ 
form to the very top. There Teddy sprang 
from them and caught the Princess Aure- 
line by the hand. “ I have come to rescue 
you ! ” he cried, and before the King could 
move or speak he had set her upon the 
white horse, he had sprung upon the black, 


84 The Counterpane Fairy. 

and with a clatter of hoofs they were dash¬ 
ing down the steps and across the square. 

Then the King of the Black-Country 
started to his feet. “ Stop them ! stop 
them ! ” he cried. 

The soldiers had been standing as though 
turned to stone, but at the King’s voice 
they started forward, reaching out to catch 
the bridles of the horses, but again Teddy 
raised his magic whip. 

“ Abraca-dabraca-dee ! 

As you were once you shall be ! ” 

he cried. 

At the magic words every soldier’s arm 
fell by his side, their eyes changed to little 
black dots, their faces grew rounder, their 
legs stiffened, and there they stood, noth¬ 
ing more nor less than wooden soldiers 
just like the ones —were they his own 
soldiers? And the Princess! Was she 
only the doll that Harriett had forgotten 
the night before and that Teddy had set 


The Magic Circus. 


85 


up against his knees to watch the show ? 
Were the streets only black and white 
silk ? 

There he was, back in his own room 
with the little wooden soldiers and the pa¬ 
per circus. There was the square of silk 
with the books under it, and the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy sitting on his knees. 

“ Oh ! but, Counterpane Fairy,” cried 
Teddy, “ what became of us ? Did we get 
away ? Oh, I did n’t want to come out of 
the story just yet! ” 

“ Why, of course you escaped,” said the 
fairy. “ How could the King stop you 
after you had changed his soldiers into 
wood ? ” 

“ And what became of you ? ” asked 
Teddy. 

“ Oh, I took the clown’s cap,” said the 
fairy, “ for it was the wishing-cap, and 
fast as you and the Princess rode back to 
the country of King Whitebeard I was 
there before you.” 


86 The Counterpane Fairy. 

Teddy thought for a while and then he 
heaved a deep sigh. “ I wish I really had 
a circus horse,” he said, “ and could ride 
round and have all the people watching 
and shouting. But what did the Princess 
say when she found I had rescued her ? ” 

“ Hark ! ” said the fairy, “ is n’t that your 
mother coming along the hall ? I must be 
going. Oh, my poor bones ! What a hill 
it is to go down ! Oh dear, dear, dear ! ” 



CHAPTER FIFTH. 


AT THE EDGE OF THE POLAR SEA. 


“^HF crocuses are up on the lawn,” 
said Teddy’s mother, who was 
standing at the window and looking out. 
“ And just hear that blackbird ! I always 
feel as though spring were really here 
when I hear the blackbirds sing.” 

Teddy was still in bed. It seemed to 
him sometimes that he had spent his whole 
life lying there in the India-room, under 
the silk counterpane, and that it was some 
other Teddy who used to go to school 
87 






88 The Counterpane Fairy. 

and shout and play with the boys in the 
street. 

“ I wish I could go out-of-doors the way 
I used to,” he said. 

“So do I,” said mamma. “ But never 
mind, darling. The doctor says it won’t 
be so very long now before you can be out 
again, and this afternoon we ’ll play some 
nice game or other that you can play in 
bed. Now what would you like it to 
be ? ” But before Teddy could answer she 
added, “ Oh dear! There comes Aunt 
Mariah.” 

Aunt Mariah lived down at the other 
end of the village, and she generally came 
every fortnight to spend an afternoon with 
Teddy’s mother. She always brought her 
knitting in a bag, and a white net cap that 
she put on before the glass as soon as she 
had taken her bonnet off. 

Teddy liked to have her come, her 
needles flew so fast, and she used to re¬ 
cite to him,— 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 89 

“A was an archer, and shot at a frog ; 

B was a butcher, and had a great dog.” 

Then when he was tired of sitting with 
her and mamma, he could run out-of-doors 
and play. 

But he found it was different to-day 
from what it had been before. He was 
still weak from his illness, and after she 
had told him all the verses that she knew, 
he grew weary of hearing her talk of Cousin 
George’s wife, and Mrs. Appleby’s rheu¬ 
matism. 

His mother saw that he was growing 
restless and that his cheeks were flushed, 
so she asked Aunt Mariah to come over 
to her room to look at some calico she had 
been buying. 

When they had gone Teddy lay for a 
time enjoying the silence of the room, but 
after a while it began to seem too still and 
the clock ticked with a strange loud sound. 
He wished Aunt Mariah would go away 


90 The Counterpane Fairy. 

and let mamma come back again. It was 
so lonely, and he was tired of his books. 

He was lying on his back, and presently 
he drew up his knees, and then over the 
tops of them he could only see the upper 
half of the window, and the tips of the 
pine-trees against the still blue sky outside. 

“ Oh dear, dear, dear ! ” said the Coun¬ 
terpane Fairy’s voice just behind the hill. 
“ Steeper than ever to-day. Will I ever 
get to the top ? ” A minute after he saw 
her little figure standing on the hill, dark 
against the sky, and the staff in her hand 
like a thin black line. 

“Oh, dear Counterpane Fairy!” cried 
Teddy, “have you come to show me 
another story?” 

“Are you sure you want to see one?” 
asked the Counterpane Fairy. 

“Oh, yes, yes, I do!” cried Teddy. 
“Your stories don’t make me feel tired 
the way Aunt Mariah’s do.” 

The fairy shook her head. “ I thought 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 91 

her stories were very pleasant,” she 
said. 

“ So they are,” said Teddy, “ but I like 
her stories best when I’m well, and I like 
your stories best when I ’m sick. Besides 
I only hear her stories and I see yours.” 

The fairy smiled. “Well, then, which 
square will you choose this time ? ” she said. 

“ I think I would like that one,” said 
Teddy, pointing to a square of watered 
ribbon that shaded from white to a sea- 
green. 

“ That s rather a long story,” said the 
fairy, doubtfully. 

“ Oh, please show it!” begged Teddy. 

“Well,” said the Fairy, “fix your eyes 
on it while I count.” 

Then she began and he heard her voice 
going on and on. “ Forty-nine ! ” she 
cried. 

Teddy was floating on a block of ice 
across the wide, green Polar sea. The 


92 The Counterpane Fairy. 

Counterpane Fairy was with him, and all 
around were great fields of ice and float¬ 
ing white bergs. The air was very still 
and cold, but Teddy liked it all the better 
for that, for now he was an ice-fairy. He 
was dressed from head to foot in a suit 
that shone and sparkled like woven frost, 
and in his belt was a knife as shining as an 
icicle. Something kept bobbing and tick¬ 
ling his forehead, and when he caught 
hold of it he found it was the end of the 
long cap he wore. 

As they drifted along, sometimes they 
saw a walrus with long tusks lying on the 
ice, or a soft-eyed seal. Once some strange 
little beings that looked like dwarfs, with 
goggle eyes and straggling black hair, 
caught hold of the block of ice, and lifting 
themselves out of the water made faces 
at Teddy, but the moment they saw the 
Counterpane Fairy their look changed to 
one of fear, and with a queer gurgling cry 
they dropped from the ice and were gone. 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 93 

“ What were those things ? ” asked 
Teddy. 

“ They were ice-mermen,” said the Coun¬ 
terpane Fairy. “ Naughty, mischievous 
things they are. I’d like to pack them 
all off to the North Pole if I could.” 

“ Oh, look! look!” cried Teddy. “Just 
look at those little bears playing over 
there.” 

They had drifted in quite near to the 
shore, and in among the blocks of ice three 
white bear cubs were playing together like 
fat little boys. They were climbing to 
the top of an ice-hillock and then sliding 
down again. 

As soon as they saw Teddy and the 
Counterpane Fairy they began to call: 
“ Oh, Father Bear ! Father Bear ! Just 
come look at these funny things floating 
in to shore on a block of ice.” 

In a moment from behind the ice-hill 
came a great white father bear galloping 
up as fast as he could to see what the 


94 The Counterpane Fairy. 

matter was. He came over toward Teddy 
growling, “ Gur-r-r ! gur-r-r-r ! Who are 
you, coming and frightening my little bears 
this way ? ” But as soon as he saw the 
Counterpane Fairy he grew quite humble. 
“ Oh, excuse me,” he said. “ I did n’t 
*know it was a friend of yours.” 

“Yes, it is,” said the fairy, “and I have 
brought him here to stay awhile. Will 
you take good care of him ? ” 

“Yes, I will,” said Father Bear. “ He 
shall sleep in the cave with us and have 
part of our meat if he will, and I will be 
as careful of him as though he were one 
of my own cubs.” 

“Very well,” said the fairy; “mind 
you do.” Then turning to Teddy she 
bade him step on shore. 

“ But are n’t you coming too ? ” asked 
T eddy. 

“ No,” said the Counterpane Fairy, 
“ I can’t come, but Father Bear will take 
good care of you.” So Teddy stepped 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 95 

onto the shore, and the fairy pushed the 
block of ice out into the water, and wav¬ 
ing her hand to him she drifted away 
across the open sea. 

The Father Bear stood watching her un¬ 
til she was out of sight, and then he turned 
to Teddy. “ Now, you Fairy,” he said, 
“you may climb up onto my back, and I ’ll 
carry you to my wife; she ’ll take good 
care of you for as long as the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy chooses to leave you here.” 

The three little bear cubs had dis¬ 
appeared, but as soon as the Father Bear 
carried Teddy around the hill of ice he 
saw what had become of them. They 
were sitting with the Mother Bear at the 
door of a cave. One of them was sucking 
its paws, and the other two were talking 
as fast as they could. The Mother Bear 
looked worried and anxious. 

“ What ’s all this Dumpy and Sprawley 
are telling me ?” she said. “ And what’s 
that you have on your back?” 


96 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ It’s an ice-fairy,” growled old Father 
Bear, “and the Counterpane Fairy wants 
us to take care of it for a while. You 
don’t mind, my dear, do you ? ” 

“ Oh dear, dear ! ” said the Mother 
Bear, “ I suppose not, but what shall we 
give it to eat, and how shall we keep 
it?” 

“ Oh, it will do just the other cubs do, I 
suppose,” said the Father Bear. Then 
turning to Teddy he said, “ You eat meat, 
don’t you ? ” 

“Yes, sir,” answered Teddy, timidly. 

“ Then that ’sail right,” said the Father 
Bear. “ Here, you children, take this fairy 
off and let him play with you.” 

Two of the little bears, Fatty (who 
was the one who had been sucking his 
paws) and Dumpy, were delighted to have 
a new playmate, and they told him he 
might come over and slide down their 
hill, but the third one, Sprawley, scowled 
and grumbled. “ Another one to be eat- 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 97 


ing up our meat,” he said. “Just as if 
there were n’t enough of us without.” 

Still he went over with them to the ice- 
hill and they all began sliding down. 

After awhile Sprawley said : “ I know a 
great deal nicer hill than this one. It’s 
just a little farther on ; come on and I ’ll 
show it to you.” 

“Oh,” said Fatty, “but suppose we 
should see some ice-mermen?” 

“ Pooh ! ” said Sprawley, “ I ain’t 
afraid. It s a great deal nicer hill than 
this. Come on.” 

So the three little bears and Teddy 
trotted on to another hill, and it really 
was much longer and steeper than the 
other; it went down almost to the edge of 
the sea. 

“ They had slidden down it only a few 
times when Dumpy cried out: “ Oh ! 
look ! look ! There are some ice-mermen 
and they are making faces at me.” 

There they were, sure enough, looking 


98 The Counterpane Fairy. 

over the edge of the ice,—ugly little gray 
things with mouths like fishes, and they 
were making faces, and presently they 
began to sing,— 

“ Bear cubs ! Bear cubs ! Look at their toes ; 
Look at their ears and their hair and their nose. 
The great big walrus will surely come 
To eat up the bear cubs and give us some.” 

Dumpy growled at them, though he 
was frightened, but Fatty began to cry. 

Just then one of the mermen sent a 
piece of ice sliding across at them, and it 
hit Fatty’s paws and upset her. She was 
so fat that she rolled over and over before 
she could get up. Dumpy ran to her, 
and as soon as she was on her feet again 
they began galloping toward home as 
fast as they could, followed by Sprawley 
and Teddy. 

As they ran along Teddy saw that 
Sprawley was shaking all over, and he 
thought it was because he was afraid, 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 99 

until he caught up to him ; then he saw 
that he was laughing. “ What are you 
laughing at ? ” he asked, but Sprawley 
only showed his teeth and growled in 
answer. 

When they reached the cave and told 
the Mother Bear about the mermen she 
scolded them well for Pfoinpf so near the 
edge of the water, and said it was time 
for them to go to bed. Father Bear 
was going on a hunt the next day, and 
he was going to let the cubs go part of 
the way with him, so they must have a 
good rest. 

The Mother Bear gave them each their 
share of seal meat, and then she went into 
the cave. 

“Oh, Fatty,” said Sprawley. “just look 
behind you and see if you don’t see a 
merman.” 

Fatty turned her head, but there was 
nothing there. When she looked back 
again she burst into a loud whine. “ Ou- 


L.of C. 


ioo The Counterpane Fairy. 

u-u ! ou-u-u-u ! ” she cried, “ Sprawley 
stole my nicest piece of meat, so he did. 
Ou-u-u ! ” 

Out shuffled Mother Bear in a hurry. 
“You naughty cub,” she cried, aiming a 
blow at Sprawley’s ear. But quick as a 
wink Sprawley slipped behind Dumpy, 
and it was upon Dumpy that the blow fell. 

And now Dumpy joined in with his 
sister. “ Ou-u-u ! ” he cried. 

“ There, there ! ” cried the poor Mother 
Bear, “ don’t you cry any more and I ’ll 
give you each an extra piece of meat.” 

So they stopped crying and ate their 
suppers contentedly, and after that they all 
went to bed, and the little cubs had hardly 
lain down before they were fast asleep. 

Teddy did not go to sleep, however. 
He lay looking at the ice-roof of the cave 
and thinking how strange it was to be 
there. Presently he heard the Mother 
Bear say very softly, “ Husband, husband, 
are you awake ? ” 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. ioi 

“Yes, I am,” said the Father Bear. 
“ What do you want ? ” 

The Mother Bear sighed. “ I don’t 
know how it is, husband,” she said, “but 
I never had a cub like Sprawley before. 
He is so naughty and mischievous that 
he keeps his little brother and sister whin¬ 
ing all the time.” 

“You ought to box him,” said the Fa¬ 
ther Bear. 

“ That’s all very well,” said the Mother 
Bear, “ but when I try to box him he slips 
behind the others and pushes them for¬ 
ward, and he is so quick that twice I 
have boxed Dumpy instead of him by 
mistake.” 

The Father Bear grunted and they 
were silent for a while, but presently the 
Mother Bear began again, more softly 
than ever. “ Do you know, husband, some¬ 
times I wonder whether Sprawley can 
really be my cub. If I could only count 
them I might find out. If there were only 


102 The Counterpane Fairy. 

one and one I could count them, but 
there are more than one and one.” 

“Well,” said Father Bear, “I should 
think that would be easy. Let’s see. 
There’s Dumpy, and he’s one, and Fatty, 
and she ’s one, and Sprawley, and he’s one. 
And now how many does that make ? ” 

“ Oh dear ! ” said the Mother Bear, 
“ don’t ask me. My head’s all of a whirl 
already.” 

“ Then you’d better go to sleep, my 
dear,” said her husband. “ The next thing 
you know you ’ll be having a headache to¬ 
morrow. You think too much.” 

“ Yes,” said the Mother Bear, sighing, 
“ that’s so; I suppose I do think too 
much, but then I can’t help it. I always 
was thinking ever since I was a cub. It’s 
the way I’m made. Good-night.” 

“ Good-night,” said the Father Bear, 
and then they, too, went to sleep. 

Teddy seemed to be the only one left 
awake. Dumpy kept crowding up against 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 103 

him and snoring with his nose close to 
Teddy’s ear. Teddy pushed him once or 
twice, but it did n’t seem to make any dif¬ 
ference. Once he poked him so hard that 
the little bear gave a snort and stopped 
snoring for a while, but soon he began 
again. 

But after all Teddy found he was not 
the only one in the cave who was not asleep. 
Sprawley, who was lying on the other side 
of Fatty, had began to stir and sit up ; he 
looked about at the sleeping bears, and 
then very quietly began to edge himself 
toward the mouth of the cave. 

Once the Mother Bear gave a low growl 
in her sleep and Sprawley stopped still to 
listen, but she did n’t waken. 

Teddy wondered what Sprawley was go¬ 
ing to do, and so, as soon as the cub had 
disappeared through the mouth of the cave, 
he too crawled over to the opening. 

When he looked out he saw Sprawley 
shuffling over the fields of ice in the dis- 


104 The Counterpane Fairy. 

tance, and already quite far away, so, led by 
his curiosity, Teddy, too, crept out of the 
cave and set off running after the bear cub. 

He ran on and on until he was quite 
close to Sprawley, and then he saw the cub 
pause at the edge of a strip of open water, 
and turn to look behind him to make sure 
that he was not followed. He did not see 
Teddy, for the fairy had hidden quickly 
behind a block of ice. 

Sprawley turned toward the water again 
and gave a long, quavering cry that 
sounded like a call. He listened, but 
everything was silent except for the rum¬ 
bling and cracking of the ice in the dis¬ 
tance. Again he called, and this time 
there was an answering cry, and another, 
and another. Sprawley stood up and 
waved his paws, and then Teddy saw that 
the open water was dotted with heads of 
ice-mermen ; there must have been ten or 
twelve of them at least. 

They swam over to where Sprawley 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 105 

stood, and climbing out on the ice they 
seemed to be welcoming him, hopping and 
sliding about, and pulling at his hair and 
claws. Now that Teddy saw them quite 
close they were uglier than ever, with gog¬ 
gle eyes, and rough, fishy-looking skins. 

They all sat on the edge of the ice, and 
now and then one of them would dive off, 
to reappear again, all wet and glistening, 
and then it would climb up and sit on the 
ice again in a row with the others. They 
all talked together, and their voices were 
so queer and husky that Teddy could not 
understand what they were saying at first. 
At last he made out that they were asking 
Sprawley about him,—where he had come 
from, and how. 

“ Well, I ’ll tell you how he came,” said 
Sprawley, and all the mermen stopped to 
listen. Sprawley, too, was silent for a 
moment, and then he said in a low, im¬ 
pressive voice, “ The Counterpane Fairy 
brought him.” 


106 The Counterpane Fairy. 

There was a long, quavering cry from 
the mermen, and several of them dived off 
into the water and did not reappear again 
for some minutes; when they did, their 
faces were all wrinkled up with anxiety. 

They climbed up onto the edge of the 
ice and sat there blinking at the sky for a 
while in silence ; then one of them said in a 
trembling voice, “Well, we haven’t been 
doing anything but just frightening the 
bear cubs a little.” 

“ How about knocking Fatty down with 
a piece of ice ? ” asked Sprawley, derisively. 

“ Scritchy did that,” cried all the mer¬ 
men but one. “ We did n’t do it. Scritchy 
did that.” 

The merman who had n’t spoken, and 
who was Scritchy, still did not say a word. 
He looked at the others with his goggle 
eyes and then he tumbled off into the 
water and swam away as fast as he could 
and did not come back any more. 

All the other mermen looked after him 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 107 

in silence until he had disappeared; then 
one of them said in an awe-struck voice, 
“ It’s bad for you, Sprawley, ain’t it ? Just 
think what you’ve been doing.” 

“ Pooh,” said Sprawley, pretending he 
was not frightened, “ what do I care ? I 
can fix it all right.” 

“How?” asked all the mermen to¬ 
gether. 

“ Well, listen, and I ’ll tell you,” said 
Sprawley. “To-morrow Father and Mother 
Bear are going hunting, and all of us 
little cubs are to go with them. I sup¬ 
pose this strange fairy cub will go with 
us, and when we stop to rest I ’ll get him 
away from the others and near the edge 
of the water. You must come under the 
ice and break off the piece he is standing 
on, and float him far, far away toward the 
South until he melts.” 

“Yes, yes! we’ll do it,” cried all the 
mermen jumping about and shouting. 
Then they turned to Sprawley. “ Come,” 


108 The Counterpane Fairy. 

they cried, “let’s have a game in the 
water before you go back.” 

“ That I will,” said Sprawley, and with 
that what should he do but strip off his 
bear-skin just as though it were a coat, 
and there he was, nothing more nor less 
than a merman who had been dressed up 
in an old skin, pretending to be a bear cub. 

Sprawley and all the other mermen 
dived off into the water and began splash¬ 
ing and shrieking and pulling at each other 
and getting farther and farther away. 

“ All the same, I don’t think you ’ll 
float me off,” said Teddy to himself. 

Very quietly he crept to where the 
bear-skin lay on the ice, and taking out 
his knife he cut a long slit up the back of 
it. Then not waiting for the mermen to 
come back he hurried home again over 
the ice to the bears’ cave, and crawling in 
he laid himself down again between the 
sleeping cubs. 

The little bears were beginning to stir 


At the Edge of the Polar Sea. 109 

themselves and the Mother Bear was 
yawning and stretching when Sprawley 
came sneaking into the cave again. 

“ Why ! why ! ” said the Mother Bear, 
“ where have you been ? ” 

“ I ain’t been anywhere,” said Sprawley. 
“ I just thought I heard a sea-lion roaring 
and I went out to see.” 

“Well, there’s no use your going to 
sleep again,” said the Father Bear, “ for 
we have to go a long ways to-day, and it’s 
time we were getting ready to start now.” 

With that he shuffled out of the cave, 
followed by the Mother Bear, and stood 
looking about him. Presently the cubs 
came out, too, still blinking with sleep. 

“Oh, Mother!” cried Dumpy, “just 
look at Sprawley’s back ! ” 

“ Why, what’s the matter with it ? ” 
asked the Mother Bear. 

“ There ain’t anything the matter with 
it,” growled Sprawley, twisting his head 
round and trying to see. 


no The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ Yes, there is too ! ” cried Fatty. “ Oh 
my ! Sprawley’s splitting hisself all down 
the back.” 

“ Why ! why ! ” cried the Father Bear, 
“what’s this?” He shuffled over and 
looked at Sprawley’s back, and then with¬ 
out a word he began to tear and pull at 
the bear-skin. In another minute he had 
it off, and there stood the merman shiver¬ 
ing and blinking at them with his mouth 
open like a gasping fish. 

“ Oh dear ! oh dear ! ” cried the Mother 
Bear, turning whiter than ever. “ He’s 
not my cub after all,” and she sat down 
and began to whine and cry. But Father 
Bear gave a growl, and rising on his hind 
legs he fetched the merman a cuff that sent 
him tumbling head over heels across the ice. 

Father Bear was after him, but before 
he could reach him the merman was up 
and running for the open strip of water in 
the distance. Father Bear chased him 
the whole way ; sometimes he caught him 


At tKe Edge of the Polar Sea. 111 

and gave him a cuff that sent him flying, 
but at last the merman .reached the water 
and dived into it. He must have had a 
sore head for days afterward, however. 

When the Father Bear came back again, 
he was panting and growling. “ There,” 
said he, “ I guess that’s the last time any 
of the mermen will try to play their tricks 
on us. Come, come,” he went on, “ it ’s 
time we were off for our hunting.” 

But the Mother Bear only shook her 
head. She had been doing nothing since 
she saw that Sprawley was an ice-mer¬ 
man but sit and rock herself backward and 
forward and whine. “ I could n’t go, my 
dear ; I could n’t indeed,” she said. “ I’m 
all of a tremble now to think how that dread¬ 
ful merman has been playing with Fatty 
and Dumpy day after day and I never 
knew it.” 

“ Then I ’ll go by myself,” said Father 
Bear, gruffly, “ and leave the children 
home with you. But you can go, Fairy,” 


112 The Counterpane Fairy. 

he said to Teddy. “I ’ll carry you on 
my back if you like, and maybe you ’ll 
see me catch a young walrus. I suppose 
it was you who split him down the back, 
as the Counterpane Fairy brought you.” 

“ Yes, sir, it was,” said Teddy, timidly ; 
“ but I’m afraid I can’t go with you ; I ’m 
afraid I ’m going back,”—for the bears, 
the fields of ice, the far-off green water, 
were all wavering and growing misty before 
his sight. Faintly he heard the voices of 
the bear cubs: “ Owie ! owie ! don’t go 
away ” ; for they had grown fond of him 
the day before. 

Then their voices died away. He was 
back in the old familiar room with the 
Counterpane Fairy perched upon his 
knees, and a bunch of snowdrops in the 
vase beside the bed. The door opened 
and his mother stood holding the knob in 
her hand and speaking to Hannah outside, 
and in that moment the Counterpane Fairy 


was gone. 



CHAPTER SIXTH. 


THE RUBY RING. 


tr HE next day, in spite of the doctor’s 
promises, Teddy was not allowed to 
sit up. 

It was a raw, blustering day, and every 
feeling of spring seemed gone from the 
air; the wind rattled at the windows, and 
Hannah built up the fire until it roared. 

Teddy did not feel much disappointed 
at not being allowed to sit up, for Harriett 
came over with her paint-box, and they be¬ 
gan coloring the pictures in some old 


113 










114 The Counterpane Fairy. 

magazines that mamma gave them ; the 
bed was littered with the pages. 

After a while mamma left them and 
went down into the kitchen to bake a 
cake. 

“ I wish I had brought my best apron 
over,” said Harriett, “ for then I could have 
stayed for dinner if you wanted me to.” 

“ Why can’t you stay anyhow ?” asked 
Teddy. 

“ Oh, I can’t,” said Harriett. “ I must 
go to dancing-class right after dinner, and I 
have to wear my apron with the embroid¬ 
ered ruffles.” 

“ Harriett, why don’t you go home and 
get it, and then perhaps you could have 
dinner up here with me ; would n’t you 
like that?” 

“Yes, but maybe Aunt Alice doesn’t 
want me to stay.” 

“Yes, she does,” said Teddy. “ I know 
she does, because she said she was so glad 
to have you come and amuse me.” 


The Ruby Ring. 


IJ 5 

“ Well, I ’ll go home and ask my mother. 
I don’t know whether she ’ll let me.” 

“ You won’t stay long, will you ? ” 

“ No, I won’t,” promised Harriett. Then 
she put on her jacket and hat and ran 
down-stairs. 

Teddy went on with his painting by 
himself for a while, but it seemed to him 
Harriett was gone a long time. He called 
his mother once, and she came to the foot 
of the stairs and told him she could n’t 
come up just yet. 

Then Teddy began thinking of the 
Counterpane Fairy, and the stories she 
had shown him. He wondered if she 
would n’t come to see him to-day. She 
always came when he was lonely, and he 
was quite sure he was getting lonely now. 
Yes, he knew he was. 

“Well,” said a little voice just back of 
the counterpane hill, “it’s not quite so 
steep to-day, and that’s a comfort.” There 
was the little fairy just appearing above the 


116 The Counterpane Fairy. 

tops of his knees,—brown hood, brown 
cloak, brown staff, and all. She sat down 
with her staff in her hand and nodded to 
him, smiling. “ Good-morning,” she said. 

“ Good-morning,” said Teddy. “ Mrs. 
Fairy, I was wondering whether you 
would n’t like it if I kept my knees down, 
and then there would n’t be any hill.” 

“ No,” said the fairy, “ I like to be up 
high so that I can look about me, only it’s 
hard climbing sometimes. Now, how about 
a story? Would you like to see one to¬ 
day ? ” 

“Oh, yes!” cried Teddy. “Indeed, I 
would.” 

“ Then which square will you choose ? 
Make haste, for I have n’t much time.” 

“ I think I ’ll take that red one,” said 
Teddy. 

“ Very good,” said the fairy, and then 
she began to count. 

As she counted, the red square spread 
and glowed until it seemed to Teddy that 


The Ruby Ring. *i 17 

he was wrapped in a mist of ruddy light. 
Through it he heard the voice of the 
Counterpane Fairy counting on and on, and 
as she counted he heard, with her voice, 
another sound,—at first very faintly, then 
more and more clearly : clink-clank ! clink- 
clank ! clink-clank ! It reminded him a 
little of the ticking of the clock on the 
mantle, only it was more metallic. 

“ Forty-nine ! ” cried the Counterpane 
Fairy, clapping her hands. 


And now the sound rang loud and 
clear in Teddy’s ears ; it was the beating 
of hammers upon anvils. 

When Teddy looked about him he was 
standing on a road that ran along the side 
of a mountain. All along this road were 
openings that looked like the mouths of 
caverns, and from these openings poured 
the ceaseless sound of beating, and a ruddy 
glow that reddened all the air and sky. 


118 The Counterpane Fairy. 

It all seemed very familiar to Teddy, and 
he had a feeling that he had seen it before. 

Stepping to the nearest cavern he looked 
in, and there he saw the whole inside of the 
mountain was hollowed out into forges that 
opened into each other by means of rocky 
arches. In every forge were little dwarfs 
dressed in leather and hammering at pieces 
of red-hot iron that lay on the anvils. 

As Teddy stood looking in he was so 
tall that his head almost touched the top 
of the doorway. He was dressed in a 
long red cloak, and under that he wore a 
robe fastened about the waist with a girdle 
of rubies that shone and sparkled in the 
light; upon his hand was a ruby ring. 
The stone of the ring was turned inward 
toward the palm, but it was so bright that 
the light shone through his fingers, and 
he drew his cloak over his hand that the 
dwarfs might not see it, for it was not yet 
time for them to know that he was King 
Fireheart. 


The Ruby Ring. 119 

After a while the iron that the little men 
were beating had to be put in the fire 
again to heat, and then they turned and 
looked at Teddy. 

“ Good-day,” said he. 

“ Good-day,” answered the dwarfs, 
staring hard at him. 

“What are you making there ?” asked 
Teddy. 

“ A link,” answered the dwarfs. 

“ A link ! ” said Teddy. “ What for ? ” 

“ For a chain,” answered the dwarfs, 
and then the iron w*as hot and they took it 
out again and laid it on the anvil. Clink- 
clank ! clink-clank ! clink-clank! went 
their hammers. 

Teddy watched them at their work for 
a while, and then he went on to the next 
forge, and there it was the same thing— 
more little cfrawfs hammering away at 
their anvils as if their lives depended on it. 

“ Good-day,” said Teddy, as soon as 
they paused to heat the iron. 


120 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ Good-day,” said the dwarfs. 

“ What are you making there ? ” asked 
Teddy. 

“ A link,” answered the dwarfs. 

“ What for ? ” said Teddy. 

“For a chain,” answered the dwarfs, 
and then they set to work again. 

Teddy went on and on through the 
forges, and in every one of them were 
little dwarfs hammering away on links. 

When he came to the last forge of all, 
they were just finishing a link, and as 
they threw it into a tank of water a cloud 
of steam rose, almost hiding them from 
view. They were so busy that they paid 
no attention to Teddy when he spoke. 
“ Make haste ! Make haste ! ” they cried 
to each other. “ It is growing late and 
she will soon be here.” 

In a great hurry the dwarfs caught up 
the link from the water and laid it on the 
anvil again, and then they all stood back 
from it. Every noise had ceased through 


I 2 I 


The Ruby Ring. 

all the forges, and the dwarfs were waiting 
in breathless stillness as though for some¬ 
thing to happen. 

Suddenly, in the silence, Teddy heard 
a faint tinkling as though of icicles struck 
lightly together, and at the same moment 
he saw that a woman all in white had 
entered the forge down at the other end. 
Her dress shone with all different colors, 
just as icicles do when they hang in the 
sunlight, and as the light of the fire caught 
it here and there, it almost looked as 
though it were on fire. Her hair was 
very black, and she wore a crown. 

She stepped up to the anvil that was in 
the forge and laid her hand upon it. She 
was too far away for Teddy to see what 
she did, but there was a clink as of some¬ 
thing breaking, and a low wail arose 
from the dwarfs that stood near by. Then 
she passed on to the next anvil, and to the 
next, and to the next, and at each one she 
paused and touched the link that lay upon 


122 The Counterpane Fairy. 

it, and always at that there was a clink, 
and a wail arose from the dwarfs. 

At last she came to the very forge 
where Teddy was, but he had drawn back 
behind the stone archway and she did 
not see him. Gliding to the anvil, she 
stretched out her white finger and laid it 
upon the link that the dwarfs had made, 
and instantly, as soon as she touched it, 
the iron flew into pieces with a clink. 

The dwarfs burst into a low wail, but 
the woman with the crown struck her 
hands together and stamped her foot in a 
rage. “ Fools ! fools !” she cried. “ Not 
yet one link that will not fly into pieces 
at a touch. But you shall make the chain, 
though it should take your very hearts to 
do it.” 

Then, still scowling until her beautiful 
face was like a thunder-cloud, and without 
a single glance at the trembling dwarfs, 
she glided from the forge and was gone. 

The dwarf who held the pincers drew 


The Ruby Ring. 


123 


his arm across his forehead to wipe off the 
sweat. “ Come,” said he, “ let us set 
to work, for now it’s all to be done over 
again.” 

“ But tell me first,” said Teddy, 
“what does this all mean, and who is 
this woman with a crown who comes and 
breaks your links with a touch as soon as 
you have finished them ? ” 

“ Ah ! that is a long, sad story,” said the 
dwarf who held the pincers. 

“Yes, it is a long, sad story,” echoed 
the others. “You tell him, Leatherkin,” 
they added. 

“ Well,” said Leatherkin, sitting down 
on a rock that lay close by, “ it ’s this 
way. This mountain where we live is only 
one of many that are called the Fire 
Mountains, because their rocks are so 
red, and because they are all full of 
forges. Here we dwarfs used to live 
happily enough, for our good King Fire- 
heart was so rich and strong that no one 


124 The Counterpane Fairy. 

dared to make war on us, and we were 
left in peace to do what we would. 

“ King Fireheart, however, was not con¬ 
tented, for he wanted to see the world, so 
one day he set out on a journey, no one 
knew whither, leaving the country in the 
charge of his foster-brother. 

While he was away the Ice-Queen came 
with all her white spearsmen and attacked 
the country and conquered it. Then she 
set us all to work, for she knew that in 
all the world there were no such smiths 
as the dwarfs of the Fire King’s country, 
and not until we have forged her the 
magic chain that binds all but one’s self 
will she set us free to go about our own 
affairs again. 

“ That is why we are all working to forge 
the links, and if we could but make one 
that would stand so much as a touch of 
her finger we would have hopes of making 
it, but so far not one has been made but 
what flies into pieces at her lightest touch. 


The Ruby Ring. 


I2 5 


“ But there,” he added ; “ we must set to 
work, for the days are all too short for 
what we have to do.” 

“Wait a bit,” said Teddy, “I should 
like to have a stroke at that chain my¬ 
self. Will you lend me a hammer and let 
me try ? ” 

“ No, no, ” cried the dwarfs, shaking 
their heads. “We have no time to waste 
in lending our hammers and anvil.” 

“Look!” said Teddy, taking off his 
ruby girdle and holding it out to them. 
“You shall have this if you will let me 
try.” 

The dwarfs’ eyes glittered, and they 
took the girdle and all crowded around 
to look and handle it, for they had never 
seen such fine rubies before, not even down 
in the middle of the earth ; and at last 
they told Teddy that they would lend him 
their hammers awhile in exchange for the 
ruby girdle. “ Though what can you do 
with them?” they said, “for look at your 


126 The Counterpane Fairy. 

hands; they are white and smooth, and 
not hairy and strong like ours.” 

“Never you mind,” said Teddy, “for 
sometimes white, smooth hands can do 
the work that others can’t,” and he took one 
of their hammers in his hand as he spoke- 

“ What will you have to work with ? ” 
they asked. 

“Oh, anything at all,” said Teddy, “ if 
it is no more than an old nail, so that it is 
something to begin with.” 

The dwarfs laughed, and picking up an 
old nail that was on the floor they laid it 
upon the anvil. 

Then Teddy raised the hammer, and the 
ruby of the ring he wore throbbed and 
burned until his hand was hot, and his arm 
so strong that the hammer was like a 
feather in his grasp. 

As he beat and turned the nail he sang, 
and it seemed to him that the fire sang 
with him, clear and thin, and sounding like 
the voice of the Counterpane Fairy,— 


The Ruby Ring. 


127 


“ Hammer and turn ! 

The fire must burn, 

The coals must glow, 

The bellows blow. 

Beat, good hammer, loud and fast; 

So the chain will be made at last. 

“ Clankety-clink ! 

We forge the link. 

My hammer bold, 

This chain must hold. 

The snow shall melt, the ice fly fast, 

For the magic chain is wrought at last.” 

With these words Teddy threw down 
the hammer and lifted the chain he had 
made, and it was as thin as a hair, as light 
as a breath, and yet so strong that no 
power on earth could break it. 

The dwarfs sprang forward with a shout 
and caught the chain in their crooked 
fingers. “Wonderful! wonderful!” they 
cried. “ It is indeed the magic chain that 
we have been trying to make for all these 
years. Who are you, wonderful stranger, 


128 The Counterpane Fairy, 

for there is no smith among all the dwarfs 
who can do what you have done ? ” 

Then without a word Teddy raised his 
hand, and held it up with the palm turned 
toward them so that they saw the ruby in 
his ring, and when they saw it they shouted 
again in their wonder and joy. “ It is the 
King himself! ” they cried. “It is King 
Fireheart himself come back to rule the 
country ! ” 

Then all the dwarfs, even from the 
farthest forges, came running up and gath¬ 
ered about the archway of the forge where 
Teddy stood, and when they saw that it was 
indeed King Fireheart they shouted and 
leaped and threw their caps up into the air. 

When they had grown quieter Teddy 
bade them take him to the Ice-Queen, so 
all the dwarfs led him out, and up the 
mountain, on and on, until they came to 
a great castle built of ice, but ruddy with 
the cold light of the aurora borealis that 
shone behind it. 


The Ruby Ring. 


129 


They went into the hall, past the rows of 
• white spearsmen, and when the spearsmen 
would have stopped them the dwarfs told 
them that they were carrying the magic 
chain that binds all but one’s self to the 
Queen, and so they let the little men pass 
on, but all the while Teddy kept the ruby 
ring hidden under his cloak. 

At last they came to the great chamber, 
where the Queen sat on a magnificent 
throne of ice, and when she saw the crowd 
she started to her feet. “ Have you brought 
it ? Have you brought it ? ” she cried 
eagerly. “ Have you brought me the 
magic chain ? ” 

“ Yes,” shouted the dwarfs all together, 
“ we have brought it.” 

Then they stood still, and Teddy went 
on up the steps alone. 

“Where is it?” asked the Queen, and 
she stretched out her hands. 

“ It is here,” said Teddy. Very slowly 

he drew it out from under his cloak, and 
9 


130 The Counterpane Fairy. 

then suddenly he threw it over her. 
“ And now take it! ” he cried. 

It was in vain that the Queen struggled 
and cried ; the more she strove, the closer 
the chain drew about her, for it was a 
magic chain. At last she stood still, pant¬ 
ing. “ Who are you ?” she asked. 

Then Teddy raised his hand, holding it 
open so that she could see the ruby. “ I 
am King Fireheart,” he cried; “and now 
take your own real shape, wicked en¬ 
chantress that you are.” 

At these words the black-browed Queen 
gave a cry that changed, even as she uttered 
it, to a croak, and a moment after she was 
nothing but a great black raven that 
spread its wings, and flew away over the 
heads of the dwarfs, out of the window 
and on out of sight. 

Then Teddy turned and walked out of 
the great ice-chamber and down the hall, 
followed in silence by the dwarfs. As he 
went the spearsmen started forward to 


The Ruby Ring. 131 

lay hands upon him, but as soon as they 
saw the ruby ring they stood, every man 
stiffened just as he was, some leaning 
forward with outstretched arm, some with 
their spears lifted, some with their mouths 
open, but all of them turned to ice. 

When Teddy and the dwarfs had reached 
the mountain road again they turned and 
looked back toward the castle. 

A warm south wind was blowing, and 
the aurora borealis had faded away. Al¬ 
ready the castle was beginning to melt ; 
the spires and turrets were softening and 
dripping down. There was a warm red 
light over everything, like the light of the 
rising sun. 

“ And now,” cried the dwarfs, “will your 
Majesty come up to your own royal 
castle ? ” 

“ Yes,” answered Teddy, “ I will come.” 

“Quick! quick!” cried the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy. “ It’s time to come back.” 


132 The Counterpane Fairy. 

Teddy was at home once more. There 
was the flowered furniture, and the fire 
burning red upon the hearth. “ Tick-tock ! 
tick-tock ! tick-tock ! ” said the clock. 

“ I must go,” cried the fairy, hastily, “ for 
I heard your little cousin opening and shut¬ 
ting the side door.” 

“Oh, wait!” cried Teddy. “Won’t 
you wait and let her see you too?” But 
the fairy was already disappearing behind 
the counterpane hill. All he could see was 
the top of her pointed hood. Then that 
too disappeared. The door was thrown 
open and Harriett came running in bring¬ 
ing a breath of fresh out-of-doors air with 
her. Her cheeks were red, and she 
looked very pretty in her embroidered 
apron and pink ribbons. 



CHAPTER SEVENTH. 

THE RAINBOW CHILDREN. 

*||T was Sunday afternoon, and every¬ 
thing was very still. 

Teddy had been allowed to sit up that 
morning for the first time since he had 
been ill. He had put on the little blue 
dressing-gown that mamma had made for 
him, and she was so funny about getting 
him into it, and wheeling the chair over 
to the window, that Teddy had laughed 
• and laughed. 

After that he sat at the window look- 


133 









134 The Counterpane Fairy. 

ing out and watching the chickens in the 
yard below, and the people going along 
the street. 

Teddy’s mamma was going to church, 
but his father stayed home with the little 
boy, and told him stories, and drew pic¬ 
tures with a blue pencil on a writing-pad ; 
pictures of “ David Killing Goliath,” and 
of “ Daniel in the Lions’ Den.” 

Then he drew a picture of the house in 
the real country where he and mamma and 
Teddy were going to live some time—a 
house with a barn, and horses, and cows, 
and pigs, and a pony that Teddy could 
ride when he came in to town to 
school. 

The morning flew by so quickly that 
the little boy was surprised when mamma 
came back from church, and said it was 
almost time for luncheon. 

She looked at the pictures that papa 
had drawn, and smiled when Teddy told 
her about them; but very soon she began 


The Rainbow Children. 135 

to talk seriously with papa. She told him 
she had stopped in at Mrs. McFinney’s 
on her way home, and that she had been 
wondering whether something could n’t 
be done for little Ellen McFinney’s lame¬ 
ness. She felt so sorry for her. 

Papa said the child ought to be sent to 
a hospital, and he thought that if that 
were done she could be cured. Mamma 
said that she thought so too; but that 
someone had been talking to little Ellen, 
and frightened her so that she cried when¬ 
ever the hospital was talked of, and her 
mother would not send her unless she 
felt willing to go. 

Then mamma spoke of how lonely it 
must be for the little girl there in the 
house by herself all the day, while her 
mother was out at work, with so little to 
amuse her. 

“Mamma,” said Teddy, “why can’t 
little Ellen have some of my books to 
amuse her—some I had when I was sick ? 


136 The Counterpane Fairy. 

Because, you know, I ’m well now, and 
don’t need them any more.” 

“ That’s a very good idea,” said mam¬ 
ma, looking pleased. “You may choose 
the ones you will give her, and perhaps 
papa will leave them with her when he 
goes out for a walk this afternoon.” 

“Well,” cried Teddy, eagerly, “ I think 
I ’ll give her the Ali Baba book and Rob¬ 
inson Crusoe , and I think, maybe, I ’ll give 
her Little Golden Locks too.” 

Mamma brought the books, and they 
tied them up in a neat package, and just 
as they finished there was a little rattle of 
china outside the door, and in came Han¬ 
nah with Teddy’s luncheon, and a great 
yellow orange that Aunt Pauline had sent 
him. 

After luncheon mamma made Teddy lie 
down for a while to rest. The Venetian 
shutters were drawn, so that all the room 
was dimly green, and then mamma and 
papa went out and left him alone. 


The Rainbow Children. 137 

Teddy lay there for what seemed to him 
a long time. The house was very still, 
and the afternoon sun shone in through 
the slats of the shutters in golden chinks 
and lines. 

Teddy wondered where mamma was, 
and why she'.did n’t come back, for it 
seemed to him that he had been alone al¬ 
most all the afternoon, though really it 
had not been for long. 

Presently he heard someone humming 
cheerfully back of the counterpane hill, 
and as soon as he heard it he felt sure that 
the Counterpane Fairy must be coming. 

Sure enough in a few minutes she ap¬ 
peared at the top and stood looking down 
at him with a pleasant smile. “ Oh, Mrs. 
Fairy, I knew that was you ! ” cried Teddy. 

“ Did you ?” said the fairy, sitting down 
on top of his knees. “ And then did you 
think, ‘ Now I shall see another story ’ ? ” 

“Oh, yes!” cried Teddy, eagerly. “I 
hoped you would show me one.” 


138 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ Then I suppose I ’ll have to,” said the 
fairy. “ And what square shall it be this 
time ? ” 

“ There’s one close by you,” said Teddy, 
“ and it’s most every color, like a rainbow. 
Will you show me that story?” 

“Yes,” said the fairy, “ I ’ll show you 
that. Now fix your eyes on it.” Then she 
began to count. 

“ Forty-nine ! ” she cried. 

Teddy and little Ellen McFinney were 
running along, hand in hand, over a rain¬ 
bow that stretched across the shining sky 
like a bridge. The clouds above them 
shone like' opals, and far, far below was 
the green world, with shining rivers, and 
houses that looked no larger than walnuts. 

“ Can’t we run fast ?” said Teddy. “ I 
think we go as fast as an express train ; 
don’t you, Ellen ? ” 

“ I know a faster way to go than this,” 
said the little girl. 


The Rainbow Children. 139 

“ Do you ? ” 

“ Yes, I do. Let go of my hand, and 
I ’ll show you.” She drew her hand away 
from Teddy, and very slowly she leaned 
back against the air as though it were a 
pillow, then she gave herself a little push 
with her feet, and away she floated so 
lightly and easily that Teddy could hardly 
keep up with her. 

“Oh, Ellen!” cried Teddy, “will you 
teach me to do that ? ” 

“ Yes, I will,” said Ellen. So she stood 
up and showed Teddy how to take a long 
breath, and how to push himself, and then 
he found he could do it quite well, and 
when Ellen began to float too, they could 
go along together hand in hand just as 
they had before. 

Suddenly a thought crossed Teddy’s 
mind, and he cried, “Why, Ellen, I 
thought you were lame ! ” 

“ So I am,” said the little girl. 

“ But you can run and float.” 


140 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ Yes, I know, but that’s because I’m 
dreaming.” 

“ Why, no, Ellen, you can’t be dream¬ 
ing,” said Teddy, “for I’m here too.” 

“Well, I don’t know,” said Ellen, “but 
I think I’m dreaming, because I’ve often 
dreamed this way before.” 

Teddy thought of this for a little while, 
but it was not pleasant to think that he 
was in a dream. After a while he said : 
“ Ellen, don’t you know, if you ’re lame 
you ought to go to a hospital ? My 
mamma says so, and my papa says so 
too.” 

An ugly expression came into Ellen’s 
face. “ That’s all you know about it,” 
she cried. “You don’t catch me going to 
a hospital. Why, I heard of a girl that 
went to a hospital and-” 

She was interrupted by a soft burst of 
laughter, and looking about Teddy saw 
that he and she had floated right into the 
midst of a group of little children, who 



The Rainbow Children. 


141 

were running along the rainbow bridge. 
They were all such pretty little children, 
with soft shining faces and bare feet, but 
they did not quite look like any children 
that Teddy had ever seen before. 

Each little child carried in its hand a 
bunch of flowers, and they were such flow¬ 
ers as the little boy had never dreamed of. 
Some of them moved on their stalks, 
opening and closing their petals softly 
like the wings of butterflies, some shone 
like jewels, and some seemed to change 
and throb as if with a hidden pulse of life. 

Ellen, who had stopped floating, caught 
Teddy by the coat and hung back timidly 
when she saw the children, but Teddy 
spoke to the one nearest to him. “ Where 
did you get your flowers ? ” he asked. 

“ From the garden at the other end of 
the rainbow,” said the little child, smiling 
at him. 

“ Give me one ?” 

“ Oh, no, I can’t! ” answered the child, 


142 The Counterpane Fairy. 

staring at him with big eyes. “ They’re 
for someone else.” 

“ Whom are they for?” 

“ You can come along and see.” 

“ Oh, say,” whispered Ellen to Teddy, 
“ let s go back ! ” But Teddy answered : 
“ No, no ! Come on and see where they ’re 
going.” So Ellen reluctantly followed 
him, and they joined the other little chil¬ 
dren journeying along the rainbow. 

The strange little children seemed very 
happy, and they laughed and talked to¬ 
gether in their soft, clear voices, though 
Teddy could not always understand what 
they said. He could understand best the 
little boy to whom he had spoken first. 
Teddy asked him again where they were 
going, and this time the little boy (he 
seemed to be the captain of the band) 
told him that they were going down to the 
earth. He said that every week they had 
a holiday, and then they crossed the rain¬ 
bow bridge, and carried the flowers from 


The Rainbow Children. 143 

their flower-beds down to the little earth 
children. 

“ But what little children ? ” asked 
Teddy, curiously. 

“ Oh, you ’ll see ! ” answered the little 
boy, laughing, and then he began to talk 
with the others, and Teddy could no longer 
understand him. 

It was not long after this that Teddy 
saw before him the end of the rainbow, 
and where should it go but right through 
the window of a great square yellow house, 
set back of a high wall and in the middle 
of a lawn. 

“ Oh dear ! we can’t get to the end of 
it after all,” cried Teddy, and the next 
thing he knew the little children were 
walking through the window just as if 
nothing were there, and he and Ellen were 
following them. 

“Where are we?” asked Ellen, look¬ 
ing about her, half frightened and yet 


curious. 


144 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ I can’t think,” said Teddy. “ Seems 
as if I knew, but I can’t think .’ 1 

They were in a long, bare, clean room, 
and on each side of it were rows of little 
white beds, and in each bed lay or sat 
a little child. A few of the children 
were asleep, most of them were awake, 
but all looked pale and thin. Here and 
there at the sides of the beds grown-up 
people were sitting, sometimes showing 
the children pictures or books, and some¬ 
times reading to them. 

The children from the rainbow walked 
slowly up the aisle between the row of 
beds, and, strangely enough, no one seemed 
to look at them or pay the least attention, 
any more than if they had not been there, 
and at last Teddy began to believe that 
they could not see them. 

Often the little strange children stopped 
to smooth a pillow or to softly stroke the 
cheek or hand of one of the little earth 
children. 


The Rainbow Children. 145 

Here and there one would linger behind 
the others, by some bed, and after a mo¬ 
ment would lay its bunch of flowers on 
the pillow. Then the little child in the 
bed would turn its head and smile, even 
if it were asleep, and its face would shine 
as if with some inward happiness. The 
whole room seemed filled with the per¬ 
fume of flowers, and Teddy wondered 
that no one paid any attention to it. 

At last they came to a bed where a little 
child was lying fast asleep, and a woman 
was sitting beside the child and fanning it. 
Suddenly its eyes opened, and the mo¬ 
ment they turned toward the rainbow chil¬ 
dren, Teddy knew that it saw them. 

It lay looking for a moment and then it 
smiled and feebly tried to wave its hand. 
“What is it, dear?” asked the woman, 
bending over the child, but it paid no at¬ 
tention to her, for it was gazing at the 
rainbow children. 

“ Oh, he sees us ! he sees us ! ” they 


146 The Counterpane Fairy. 

cried, clapping their hands joyfully. “He ’ll 
be coming across the rainbow soon.” 

Then the rainbow children gathered 
about the bed and began talking to the 
child, but Teddy could not understand 
what they said to it. The little child on 
the bed seemed to understand them though, 
and it smiled and tried to nod its head. 

“ Come soon ! Come soon ! ” cried the 
little children, waving their hands to it as 
they moved away, and the eyes of the 
child on the bed followed them wistfully, 
as though it were eager to follow. 

Teddy and Ellen still went with the 
other little children, and a moment after 
they were out on the rainbow bridge again, 
high up above the world, but they were 
alone, for the little strange children were 
gone. 

Ellen stood still and drew a long breath. 
“Oh! wasn’t that lovely?” she sighed. 
“ I wonder where it was ! ” 

“ I know where it was!” cried Teddy, 


The Rainbow Children. 147 

suddenly. “ I remember now, for I saw a 
picture of it in one of papa’s magazines. 
That was a hospital, Ellen.” 

“ A hospital ! ” cried the little girl. 

“ Yes, a hospital.” 

Ellen did not say anything for some 
time, but at last she drew another deep 
breath. “Well, if that’s a hospital I 
should n’t mind going to a place like that,” 
she said. 

The rainbow had faded away, and 
Teddy was back in the great high-post 
bedstead again, with the silk coverlet 
drawn up over his knees, and the Coun¬ 
terpane Fairy still sitting on top of the 
hill. Teddy lay looking at her for a while 
in silence. “ Mrs. Fairy, was that a true 
story like the others ? ” he asked her at last. 

“ H ow should I know ? ” asked the 
fairy. “ Do I look as though I knew 
anything about rainbow children ? You’d 
better ask Ellen McFinney ; maybe she 
can tell you.” 


148 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“Well, I will,” said Teddy. “ I mean 
to ask her just as soon as ever I ’m well.” 

He did not have to wait for that, how¬ 
ever, for the very next day his mother told 
him that little Ellen had at last consented 
to be taken to the hospital, and that per¬ 
haps when he saw the little girl again she 
would be able to walk and run about 
almost like other little children. 



CHAPTER EIGHTH, 


HARRIETT S DREAM. 


^EDDY had begged mamma to ask 
Harriett to come over and play with 
him after school, but not to tell her that 
now he was no longer in bed, so when the 
little girl came running in she was very 
much surprised. “Why, Teddy, you’re 
well again, are n’t you ? ” she cried. 

“ Yes, now I’m well again,” said Teddy 
“ and mamma says we may each have a 
little sponge-cake, and she’s going to let 


149 







150 The Counterpane Fairy. 

us blow soap-bubbles. Would you like to 
blow soap-bubbles, Harriett?” 

“Yes, I guess so,” said Harriett. 

So mamma made them a bowl of strong 
suds, and brought out two pipes, and the 
children played together very happily for 
quite a time. Sometimes they threw the 
bubbles into the air and tried to blow 
them up to the ceiling; sometimes they 
threw them off upon the floor, where they 
touched lightly, and rested for a while, 
reflecting the windows and pulsing with 
changing colors ; sometimes the children 
put their pipes close together, so that the 
bubbles they blew were joined in one lop¬ 
sided globe. 

Last of all they set the bowl on a chair, 
and kneeling beside it put their pipes into 
the suds, and blew and blew until quite a 
soap-bubble castle rose up and touched 
their noses with wet suds. 

Teddy felt a little tired and soapy by 
that time, so mamma put all the things 


Harrietts Dream. 


away, and read them some stories from 
Grimm’s Fairy Tales . 

After that Harriett said she must go 
home, and indeed it was almost supper¬ 
time, so mamma helped her put on her 
little hat and coat and kissed her good¬ 
bye. 

Teddy was very tired by the time sup¬ 
per was over; he felt quite willing to be 
put to bed, and as soon as he was there he 
sank into a doze. 

When he awoke again he was alone ; it 
was quite dark outside, but mamma had 
set a lamp behind the screen. By its dim 
light Teddy saw the Counterpane Fairy’s 
brown hood appearing above the hill, and 
he heard her sighing to herself: “ Oh dear ! 
oh dear!” 

“Oh, Mrs. Fairy!” cried the little boy, 
almost before she had reached the top of 
the hill, “ I’m so glad you’ve come, for I 
don’t know when mamma will be here. 
Won’t you show me a story ?” 


152 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ In a minute ! in a minute !” said the 
fairy. “ As soon as I can catch my 
breath.” 

Teddy was so afraid'that mamma would 
come in that he could hardly wait, and 
when the Counterpane Fairy told him that 
she was ready and that he might choose a 
square, he made haste and pointed out a 
silvery gray one. Then the fairy began to 
count. “ Forty-nine ! ” she cried. 

Teddy was walking down a long, smooth, 
gray road. There was a silvery mist all 
about him, so that it was almost as though 
he were walking through the sky, and the 
road seemed to begin and end in grayness. 

He knew that somewhere behind him 
lay his home, and that in front was the 
place where he was going, but he did not 
know what that place was. 

At last he reached the edge of a wide 
gray lake as smooth and as shining as 
glass. Beside him on the beach a little 


Harriett’s Dream. 153 

gray bird was crouching. “ Peet-weet ! 
peet-weet! ” cried the little gray bird. 

It was so close to Teddy’s feet that it 
seemed to him that with a single move¬ 
ment he could stoop and catch it. Very 
softly he reached out his hand and the lit¬ 
tle bird did not stir. “ Peet-weet ! peet- 
weet ! ” it cried. Suddenly with a quick 
movement he clutched it. For a moment 
he thought that he felt it in his fingers, all 
feathery and soft and warm, and then the 
voice of the Counterpane Fairy cried, 
“ Take care ! you ’re rumpling my cloak ! ” 

Teddy dropped the bird as though it 
had burned him, and there it was not a 
bird at all, but the Counterpane Fairy, 
who stood smoothing down her cloak and 
frowning. “ Oh ! I did n’t know that was 
you ; I thought it was a bird,” cried Teddy. 

“ A bird ! ” cried the fairy. “ Do I look 
like a bird ? ” 

Teddy thought that she did, for her nose 
was long and thin, and her eyes were 


154 The Counterpane Fairy. 

bright like those of a sparrow, but he 
did not like to say so. All he said was, 
“ I wonder why I came here ? ” for now 
he knew that this was the place that he 
had been coming to. 

“ I suppose you came to see the dreams 
go by,” said the Counterpane Fairy. “ I 
often come for that myself.” 

“ The dreams go by ! ” said Teddy. “ I 
don’t know what you mean.” 

“ Do you see that castle over yonder ? ” 
asked the fairy, pointing out across the 
lake. Teddy looked as hard as he could, 
and after a while he thought he did see the 
shadowy roofs and turrets of a great gray 
castle through the mist. 

“ I think I do,” he said. 

“Well,” said the fairy, “that is where 
the dreams live, and every evening they 
go sailing past here, on their way to the 
people who are asleep, and I generally 
come down to see them go by. Look! 
look ! There goes one now.” 


Harriett’s Dream. 


155 


A little boat, as pale and light as a bub¬ 
ble, was gliding through the mist; in it was 
seated a gray figure, and as it passed the is¬ 
land it turned its face toward them and 
waved a shadowy hand. Presently two more 
boats slid silently by, and then another. 
“ Oh, I know that dream !” cried Teddy ; 
“ I dreamed that dream once myself.” 

Now there was a little pause, and then 
the dreams began to go past so fast that 
Teddy lost count of them. 

At last one of the boats glided out of 
the line of the rest, and over toward where 
Teddy was standing, running up smoothly 
onto the gray beach, and out of it hopped 
a queer, ugly little dream, with pop eyes 
and big hands and feet. As soon as he 
found himself on shore he cut a caper and 
cracked his shadowy fingers. 

“Who are you?” asked Teddy, cu¬ 
riously. 

“ Oh, I m just a dream,” said the little 
figure. 


156 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ Well, what are you coming here 
for?” asked Teddy; “ I’m not asleep.” 

“ I know you ’re not,” said the dream, 
“ and I’m not coming to you. I’m going 
to a little girl named Harriett.” 

“ Oh, I know her! ” cried Teddy. “ She’s 
my cousin. But why are you her dream ? 
You ’re not pretty.” 

“ I know I ’m not pretty,” answered the 
dream, “ and that’s why I ’m going to her. 
She was to have had such a pretty dream 
to-night, but she ate a piece of plum-cake 
before she went to bed, so now I’m going 
to her instead of the other one.” 

“ What was the other one like ? ” asked 
Teddy. 

“ There it is,” said the dream, pointing 
toward the boat. And now Teddy saw 
that another gray figure was in it. As he 
looked, it slowly and sorrowfully stepped 
from the boat and came up the beach 
toward them. It was very beautiful, and 
in its hand it carried a great bunch of 


Harriett’s Dream. 


157 


shining bubbles, fastened to a stick by 
parti-colored ribbons, just as Teddy had 
seen Italians carrying balloons, only these 
bubble-balloons were growing and shrink¬ 
ing and changing every moment, just as 
though they were alive. 

As she came toward them the ugly 
dream frowned and shook his hands at 
her. “ Go away ! Go away ! ” he cried. 
“ There’s no use your following me 
around this way. You shan’t be dreamed 
to-night.” 

“ I think you might let me go into her 
dream with you,” said the pretty dream, 
sorrowfully. “ She did n’t know she 
ought n’t to eat the plum-cake.” 

“ Well, you sha’n’t,”said the ugly dream. 
“ She ain’t going to have any dream but 
me, and I’m going to look just as ugly as 
I can. I’m going to do this way,” and 
the naughty little dream put his thumbs 
in the corners of his mouth, drawing it 
wide, and at the same time drew down 


158 The Counterpane Fairy. 

the outside corners of his eyes with his 
forefingers, just as Teddy had seen the 
boys at school do sometimes. Then the 
dream hopped up into the air and cut a 
caper. “ Ho, ho !” he cried, “won’t it be 
fun? You can come along and see nle 
frighten her, if you want to.” This last 
he said to Teddy. 

Teddy thought him a very naughty, 
ugly-tempered little dream, but still he 
went with him, wondering all the time 
how he could induce him to let the pretty 
dream go to Harriett, and as they walked 
up the road together the pretty dream 
still followed them, carrying her bunch of 
bubbles. 

They went on and on, until they came 
to a place where the ground was rough, 
and broken up with a number of black 
holes. The ugly dream went from one to 
another of these, pausing, and laying his 
ear to their edges. 

“What are you doing?” asked Teddy. 


Harriett’s Dream. 


*59 


“ Hush ! can’t you see I’m listening?” 
said the dream, crossly. 

At last, after pausing at one of them, he 
turned to Teddy and nodded his head. 
“ This is it,” he said ; “ this is where Har¬ 
riett lives.” 

“ Why, it is n’t at all! ” cried Teddy, in¬ 
dignantly. “ My cousin Harriett doesn’t 
live in a hole ! She lives in a great big 
house with doors and windows.” 

“Well, anyway, this is her chimney,” 
said the dream, “ and it’s the only way to 
get into her house from here. If you 
want to come, come; and if you don’t 
want to, why, stay,” and the dream sat 
down on the edge of the hole. 

Teddy hesitated. “ If I went down that 
way, I think I ’d fall and hurt myself,” he 
said at last. 

“ Pooh ! No, you would n’t if you took 
my hand,” said the dream. “ I always go 
this way, and it’s as easy as anything.” 

So Teddy sat down on the edge of the 


160 The Counterpane Fairy. 

hole, and grasped the dream’s shadowy 
fingers in his. Then they pushed them¬ 
selves off the edge, and down they went 
through the darkness. 

Teddy felt so frightened for a minute 
that he quite lost his breath, but he held 
on tight to the dream’s fingers, and soon 
they landed, as softly and lightly as a 
feather, right in the nursery of Aunt 
Paulina’s house, and the pretty dream was 
still following them. 

“ And now begins the fun,” whispered 
the dream. 

The house was very still, for everyone 
was fast asleep. The moon shone in 
through the window, making the room 
bright, and beyond the open closet door. 
Teddy could see the toys all arranged in 
order just as Harriett had left them, (for 
she was a tidy little girl), and Harriett 
herself was tucked into her little white bed 
in the room beyond. 

Teddy felt so sorry to think of her hav- 


Harriett’s Dream. 161 

ing such an ugly dream that he stood 
still. “You won’t frighten her very 
much, will you ?” he asked. 

“Yes, I shall!” said the ugly dream. 
“ I ’ll frighten her just as much as ever I 
can ; I ’ll make her cry.” 

“ No, you must n’t,” said Teddy, al¬ 
most crying himself. “ I won’t let you.” 

“You can’t help it,” cried the dream, 
tauntingly. 

Suddenly a bright thought came into 
Teddy’s mind. “ Anyway, you ’re not 
so very ugly,” he said. “ Harriett has a 
Jack-in-the-box that’s a great deal—oh ! 
ever so much uglier than you.” 

“ I don’t believe it,” said the dream. 

“ Yes, she has,” said Teddy ; “ and it’s 
right there in the closet.” 

“ Then I ’ll get it, and make myself look 
like it.” With that the dream crawled 
into the closet, and pushed back the hook 
of the box where the Jack lived, and pop ! 
up shot the most hideous little man that 


162 The Connterpane Fairy. 

ever was seen, with a bright red face and 
white whiskers. “ Hi! he is ugly ! ” cried 
the dream with delight, and sitting down 
before the box he began to make his face 
like the Jack’s. 

Then softly and quickly Teddy closed 
the closet door, and turned the key in the 
lock, fastening the dream in. “ Hi there ! 
let me out! let me out! ” cried the dream, 
beating softly on the door with its shad¬ 
owy hands. 

“No, I won’t,” cried Teddy. “You 
can just stay in there, you ugly dream, 
for the pretty dream is going to Harriett 
now.” Then he turned to the pretty dream 
and took her by the hand, and her face 
shone as brightly as one of her own bub¬ 
bles. 

Together they ran into Harriett’s room, 
and there she lay in her little white bed, 
with her eyes closed and her curls spread 
out over the pillow, and when they came 
in she smiled in her sleep. 


Harriett’s Dream. 


163 

The dream shook the bubbles above 
the bed, and the dimples came into Har¬ 
riett’s cheeks. “Oh! pretty, pretty!” 
she whispered, with her eyes still closed. 
“Oh, Teddy ! is n’t it pretty?” 

“Yes, it is pretty ! ” cried Teddy. 

“ Did you call me, dear?” asked mam¬ 
ma, opening the door. 

Teddy was back in his own room, and 
all he could see of the Counterpane Fairy 
was the tip of her brown hood disappear¬ 
ing behind the counterpane hill, and that 
was gone in an instant. 

“ Oh, Mamma! it was such a pretty 
dream,” cried Teddy. 

“Was it, darling?” said mamma. 
“Try to go to sleep again, dear, for it 
is very late, and you can tell me all about 
it to-morrow. Good-night, my little boy.” 



CHAPTER NINTH. 


DOWN THE RAT-HOLE. 


U; HE next day Teddy was allowed to go 
about and follow mamma into the 
sewing-room, where he had the little cut¬ 
ting-table drawn out and his toys put on it, 
and played for a long time. 

In the afternoon Harriett stopped for a 
little while, and as soon as Teddy saw her 
his thoughts went back to the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy and the story, and he cried 
out: “ Oh, Harriett! I know what you 
dreamed last night.” 

“What did I dream?” asked Harriett. 

164 









Down the Rat-Hole. 165 

“ Why, you dreamed about the soap- 
bubbles and me ; did n’t you ? ” 

“ How did you know I dreamed that ?” 
asked Harriett. 

Then Teddy told her all about standing 
by the lake and seeing the dreams go past, 
and how he had shut the ugly one up in 
the toy-closet. 

Harriett listened with great interest. 
“ Was n’t that a funny dream ? ” she cried 
when he had ended. 

“A dream!” said Teddy. “ Why, that 
wasn’t a dream, Harriett. That’s the 
story the Counterpane Fairy showed me. 
And don’t you know you did dream about 
the bubbles ? ” 

Harriett was silent awhile as if ponder¬ 
ing it, and then she said, “ My canary-bird 
flew away this morning.” 

“ Who let it out?” asked Teddy, with 
interest. “ Did you ?” 

Harriett hesitated. “Well, I didn’t ex¬ 
actly let it out,” she said. “ I guess I 


166 The Counterpane Fairy. 

forgot to close the door after I cleaned 
its cage.” Then she added hastily : “ But 
mamma hung the cage outside the window, 
and she says she thinks maybe it ’ll come 
back unless someone has caught it.” 

Teddy wanted to hear a great deal more 
about the canary, but Harriett said she 
must go now, so he was left alone again 
to play with his toys. 

After dinner his mother went down-town 
to buy a present for Harriett, for the next 
day was to be the little girl’s birthday. 
Teddy wanted her to get a bag of marbles, 
but she thought perhaps she would be 
able to find something Harriett would 
like better than that. She would look 
1 about and see. 

Before she went she made Teddy lie 
down on the bed, and covered him over 
with the silk quilt, so that he might rest 
for a while. Then she kissed him and 
told him to try to take a nap, and promised 
to be back soon. 


Down the Rat-Hole. 


167 


After she had gone Teddy dozed com¬ 
fortably for a while. Then he grew wide 
awake again, and turning over on his back 
he raised his knees into a hill, and lay 
looking out of the window, and wondering 
when mamma would come home, and 
what she would bring with her. 

“You ’re not asleep, are you ? ” asked a 
little voice from his knees. 

“ Oh, Counterpane Fairy, I’m so glad 
you ve come,” cried Teddy, “ for mamma 
has gone down-town, and I was just be¬ 
ginning to get lonely.” 

There was the familiar little figure in 
the brown cloak and hood, seated on top 
of the counterpane hill, and as he spoke 
she looked down upon him smilingly. “ I 
suppose the next thing will be a story,” 
she said. 

“Oh! will you show me one?” cried 
Teddy. “ I wish you would, for I don’t 
know when mamma will be home.” 

“ Very well,” said the fairy. “ Perhaps 


168 The Counterpane Fairy. 

I can show you one before she comes back. 
Which square shall it be this time ? ” 

“ I ve had the red, and the yellow, 
and the green, and ever so many ; I won¬ 
der if that brown one has a good story 

• , j) 

to it. 

“ You might choose it and see,” said the 
fairy. So Teddy chose that one, and then 
the fairy began to count. “ One, two, three, 
four, five,” she counted, and so on and on 
until she reached “ Forty-nine !” 

“ Why, how funny ! ” cried Teddy. 

He was nowhere at all but on the back 
door-^tep, and he sat there just as natur¬ 
ally as though he were not in a story at 
all. Then the back gate opened, and in 
through it came a little withered old wo¬ 
man, wearing a brown cloak, and a brown 
hood drawn over her head. “ Why, Coun¬ 
terpane Fairy!” cried Teddy, but when 
she raised her head and looked at him he 
saw that it was not the Counterpane Fairy 


Down the Rat-Hole. 169 

after all, but an old Italian woman carry¬ 
ing a basket on her arm. 

“You buy something, leetle boy?” she 
said. 

“ I can’t,” said Teddy. “I have n’t any 
money except what’s in my bank, but I ’ll 
ask Hannah and maybe she will.” 

So saying he ran into the kitchen. The 
clock was ticking on the wall, and the 
room smelled of fresh-baked bread, but it 
was empty. Opening the door of the 
stairway, Teddy called, “ Hannah ! Han¬ 
nah ! ” There was no answer ; it all seemed 
strangely still upstairs. “ She must have 
gone out,” Teddy said to himself. 

When he went back to the outside door 
the old Italian had put down her basket 
and was sitting on the step beside it. She 
did not seem at all surprised when he told 
her he could not find anyone. “You not 
find anyone, and you not have money,” 
she said. “ Then I tell you what I do ; 
you put your hand in dis baskit, and I give 


170 The Counterpane Fairy. 

you what you take ; I make what you call 
‘ present.’ ” 

“ Will you really ?” cried Teddy. 

“ Yis,” said the little old woman, smiling, 
and her smile was just like the smile of the 
Counterpane Fairy. 

“ And you ’ll give me whatever I take ? ” 

“ Yis,” said the little old woman again. 

Teddy put his hand in under the cover 
and caught hold of something hard and 
cold. He pulled and pulled at it, and out 
it came; it was a little iron shovel. 

“You take something more,” said the 
little old woman. Teddy hesitated, but 
when he looked at her again he saw that 
she really meant it, so he put his hand in and 
this time he pulled out a large iron key. 

“ Now try once more,” said the little old 
woman, and this third time it was a rat- 
trap baited with cheese, that Teddy drew 
from the basket. 

“But what shall I do with them?” he 
asked. 


Down the Rat-Hole. 171 

“You keep dem,” said the old Italian, 
“and you find you need dem by and by.” 
Then she rose, and pulling her cloak over 
the basket she took her staff in her other 
hand and hobbled down the pathway. 

Teddy slipped the key into his pocket, 
and holding the shovel and the trap he ran 
down to the gate to open it for her. He 
stood looking after her as she went on down 
the street, ‘her staff striking the bricks 
sharply, tap ! tap ! tap ! Her back was cer¬ 
tainly exactly like the Counterpane Fairy’s. 

As he walked slowly up the path swing¬ 
ing his shovel by the handle, he noticed 
that there was a rat-hole just back of the 
rain-butt, and he thought what fun it 
would be to dig it out, so he put the cage 
down on the ground and set to work with 
his shovel. 

The earth broke away from the rat-hole 
in great clods, and he found it so easy to 
dig that very soon he had made quite a 
big hole. 


172 The Counterpane Fairy. 

Then he saw that down in this hole 
there was a flight of stone steps leading 
into the earth. “ Why, is n’t that funny ! ” 
said Teddy. “ Right in the back yard, 
too. I wonder where they go ! ” 

Tucking the shovel under his arm and 
taking the trap in his hand, Teddy stepped 
into the rat-hole and began to go down 
the stairs. 

He went on down and down and down, 
and at last he came to an iron door, and it 
was locked. Teddy tried it and knocked, 
but there was no answer. He listened 
with his ear against it, but he heard noth¬ 
ing, and he was just about to turn and go 
up the stairs again, when he remembered 
the key the little old woman had given 
him. 

He pulled it out of his pocket, and when 
he tried it in the keyhole it fitted exactly. 
He turned it, the door flew open, and 
Teddy stepped through. 

Beyond was a cave, just such as he had 


Down the Rat-Hole. 


173 


often wished he could live in, with a 
rough table and chairs, old keg$, and a 
heap of rubbish in one corner. On each 
side of the cave was a heavy door studded 
with iron nails. “ I will just see where 
these doors lead to,” said Teddy to him¬ 
self, laying his trap and his shovel behind 
one of the kegs. 

As he reached the first door and put 
his hand on it he heard someone singing 
the other side of it as sweetly and clearly 
as a bird, and this is what the voice sang: 

“ In field and meadow the grasses grow ; 

The clouds are white and the winds they blow. 

Out in the world there is much to see, 

If I were but free ! If I were but free ! 

My wings were bright and my wings were strong ; 

I plumed myself and I sang a song : 

Where is the hero to rescue me, 

And set me free ? And set me free ? ” 

The song ended and Teddy opened the 
door. 

Within was another room that looked 


174 The Counterpane Fairy. 

almost like the first, only there was a fire¬ 
place ia it, and in front of this fireplace a 
young girl was sitting. 

As soon as Teddy opened the door 
she looked over her shoulder, and when 
she saw him she sprang to her feet with a 
glad cry and clasped her hands. “ Oh ! ” 
she cried, “ have you come to rescue 
me ? ” 

“ Who are you ? ” asked Teddy, wonder¬ 
ing at her. 

She was very beautiful. Her eyes 
were as bright and black as a sloe, her 
hair shone like threads of pure gold, and 
she wore a long cloak of golden feathers 
over her shoulders. 

When Teddy spoke she answered him, 
“ I am Avis, the Bird-maiden.” 

“ And how did you come here ? ” asked 
T eddy. 

Then the Bird-maiden told him how 
she used to live in a golden castle that 
was all her own ; how she ate from crystal 


Down the Rat-Hole. 


175 


dishes and bathed every morning in a 
little marble bath-tub, and had nothing to 
do all day but swing in her golden swing 
and sing for her own pleasure. But after 
a while she grew tired of all this and 
began to wonder what the outside world 
was like, and one day the sun was so bright 
and the air so sweet that she left her 
home and flew out into the wide, wide 
world. 

That was all very pleasant until she 
grew tired and sat down on a stone to 
rest. Then a great brown robber came 
and caught her and carried her down into 
his den, and there he kept her a prisoner 
in spite of her tears and prayers, and 
there she must wait on him and keep his 
house in order; every day he went out 
and left her alone, coming back loaded 
down with food or golden treasure that 
he had stolen. 

“ But why don’t you run away ?” asked 
Teddy. “ I would.” 


176 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ Alas! I can’t,” said the Bird-maiden, 
“ for whenever the robber-magician goes 
out he locks the door after him, and I 
have no key to open it.” 

Then Teddy told her that he had a key 
that would unlock the door and that he 
would save her. 

The Bird-maiden was very glad, but 
she said they must make haste, for it 
was almost time for the robber to come 
home; so she wrapped her cloak around 
her, and Teddy took her by the hand and 
together they ran to the door. 

They had hardly reached the outer 
cave, however, when Teddy heard a loud 
bang that echoed and re-echoed from the 
walls. 

“ Alas ! alas ! ” cried the Bird-maiden, 
shrinking back and beginning to wring 
her hands, “we are too late. There, 
comes the robber, and now we will never 
escape.” 

She had scarcely said this when in 


Down the Rat-Hole. 


1 77 


marched the robber-magician sure enough. 
He wore a great soft hat pulled down 
over his face, and he had a long brown 
nose and little black beads of eyes. His 
mustache stuck out on each side like 
swords, and he carried a great sack over 
his shoulder. 

The robber-magician threw the sack 
down on the floor and frowned at Teddy 
from under his hat. “How now!” he 
cried. “ Who’s this who has come down 
into my cavern without even so much as 
a ‘ by your leave ’ ? ” 

Teddy felt rather frightened, but he 
spoke up bravely. “I ’m Teddy,” he 
said, “ and I did n’t know this was your 
cave. I though it was just a rat-hole.” 

“ A rat-hole ! ” cried the robber-magi¬ 
cian, bursting into a roar of laughter. “ A 
rat-hole! My cave a rat-hole! Ho! ho ! ho!” 

“Yes, I did,” said Teddy, “and I did n’t 
know it was yours, but if you want me to 

go I will.” 

12 


178 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ Not so fast,” said the robber. “ Some¬ 
times it is easier to come into my cave than 
to go out, and you must sit down and 
have some supper with me now that you 
are here.” 

Teddy was quite willing to do that; for 
he was really hungry, so he and the rob¬ 
ber drew chairs up to the table, and the 
Bird-maiden, at a gesture from the robber, 
picked up the sack that he had thrown 
upon the ground, and out from it she drew 
some pieces of bread and some bits of cold 
meat. It did not look particularly good, 
but it seemed to be all there was, so when 
the robber began to eat Teddy helped 
himself too. 

The robber-magician did not take off 
his hat, and he ate very fast; after a 
while he leaned back in his chair and be¬ 
gan to tell Teddy what a great magician 
he was, and about his treasure chamber. 

“ There,” he said, “ is where I keep my 
gold. I have gold, and gold, and gold, 


Down the Rat-Hole. 


179 


great bars and lumps and crusts of gold, 
all piled up in my treasure chamber.” At 
last he rose, pushed back his chair, and 
bade Teddy follow him and he should see 
how great and rich he was. 

Leading the way across the cave, he un¬ 
locked the third door, and flinging it open 
stepped back so that Teddy might look 
in. As he opened it a very curious smell 
came out. 

Teddy stared and stared about the treas¬ 
ure chamber. “ But where is the gold ? ” 
he said. 

“ There, right before your eyes,” said 
the robber. “ Don’t you see it ? ” 

“ Why, that is n’t gold. That’s noth¬ 
ing but cheese,” cried Teddy. 

“ Cheese ! cheese ! ” cried the robber- 
magician, stamping his foot in a rage ; “ I 
tell you it’s gold.” 

“ It is n’t ! it’s cheese ! ” said Teddy. 
“ Look ! I have some just like it ; I ’ll 
show you,” and running to the keg where 


180 The Counterpane Fairy. 

he had left his trap he pulled it out and 
held it up for the robber to see. 

As soon as the robber-magician saw the 
cheese in the trap his fingers began to 
work and his mouth to water. “ Oh, what 
a fine rich piece of gold ! ” he cried. “ How 
do you get it out ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” said Teddy. “ I don’t 
think it comes out.” 

“ There must be some way,” cried the 
robber. “ Let me see,” and taking the 
trap from Teddy he put it down on the 
floor and began to pick and pry at the 
bars, but he could not get the cheese out, 
and the more he tried the more eager he 
grew. “ There’s one way,” he muttered to 
himself, looking up at Teddy suspiciously 
from under his slouch hat. 

‘ How is that ? ” asked Teddy. 

“ If one were only a rat one could get 
at it fast enough,” said the robber-magi¬ 
cian. 

“ Yes, but you ’re not,” said Teddy, 


Down the Rat-Hole. 181 

“ All the same it might be managed,” 
said the magician. Again he tore and tore 
at the bars, and he grew so eager that he 
seemed to forget about everything but the 
cheese. “ I ’ll do it,” he cried, “ yes, I 
will.” Then he laid off his great soft hat, 
and crossing his forefingers he cried : 

“ Innocent me ! Innocent me ! 

As I was once again I will be.” 

And now the magician’s nose grew 
longer, his mustache grew thin and stiff 
like whiskers, his sword changed to a long 
tail, and in a minute he was nothing at all 
but a great brown rat that ran into the 
trap. 

“ Click ! ” went the trap, and there he 
was fastened in with the cheese. 

It was in vain that he shook the bars 
and squeaked. 

“ Quick ! quick ! ” cried the Bird-maiden. 
“ Let us escape before he can use his 
spells.” She caught Teddy by the hand, 


182 The Counterpane Fairy. 

and together they ran to the door that 
led to the stairway. “Your key! Oh, 
make haste! ” cried the Bird-maiden, 
breathlessly. 

In a moment Teddy had unlocked the 
door they had passed through, and it had 
swung to behind them. Up the stairs 
they ran, and there they were standing 
in the sunlight near the rain-butt. 

“ I am free ! I am free ! ” cried the 
Bird-maiden, joyously. “ Oh ! thank you, 
little boy. And now for home.” She 
caught the edges of her cloak and spread 
it wide, and as she did so it changed to 
wings, her head grew round and covered 
with feathers, and with a glad cry she 
sprang from the earth, and flew up and 
away and out of sight through the sunlight. 

“Why, it’s Harriett’s canary ! ” cried 
Teddy. 

“ And now I must go,” said the Coun¬ 
terpane Fairy. 


Down the Rat-Hole. 183 

Teddy was back in the India-room. 
The sun was low, and a broad band of 
pale sunlight lay across the foot of the 
bed. The fairy was just starting down 
the counterpane hill. 

“Was it really Harriett’s canary?” 
asked Teddy. 

“ I have n’t time to talk of that now,” 
cried the Counterpane Fairy, “for I hear 
your mother coming. Good-bye ! good¬ 
bye ! ” 

And sure enough she had scarcely dis¬ 
appeared behind the counterpane hill 
when his mamma came in. 

“ Oh, Mamma ! ” cried Teddy, “ do you 
think Harriett’s canary came back?” 

“ I don’t know, dear,” said his mother. 
Then she put a little package into his 
hand. “ Do you think Harriett will like 
that ? ” she asked. 

When Teddy opened the bundle he 
saw a cunning little bisque doll that sat 
in a little tin bath-tub. You could take 


184 The Counterpane Fairy. 

the doll out and dress it, or you could 
really bathe it in the tub. 

“Oh! isn’t that cute!” cried Teddy, 
with delight. “Won’t little Cousin Har¬ 
riett be pleased ! ” 

“ I hope she will,” said mamma. 



CHAPTER TENTH. 


THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY SAYS GOOD-BYE. 


^EDDY was to go out-doors the next 
day if it was mild and pleasant. 
The doctor had come in that morning for 
the last time to see him. “ Well, my little 
man,” he had said, giving Teddy's cheek a 
pinch, “ can’t be pretending you ’re a sick 
boy any longer with cheeks and eyes like 
these. Now we ’ll have you back at school 
in no time, and then I suppose you ’ll be 
up to all your old tricks again.” 

Later on the little boy had gone down¬ 
stairs for dinner, for the first time since 
185 





186 The Counterpane Fairy. 

he had been ill. Everything there had 
looked very strange to him, and as if he 
had not seen it for years. 

He had felt just as well as ever until he 
tried to chase the cat, Muggins, down the 
hall, and then his legs had given way in a 
funny, weak fashion that made him laugh. 

After dinner Muggins followed him up¬ 
stairs, and curling down under a chair 
went fast asleep. Teddy took his blocks 
and built them about the chair, so that 
when the cat woke he found himself built 
up inside a little house. 

However, a door had been left, and he 
poked his nose and his paw through it, 
and then the whole front wall went down 
with a noisy clatter, and Muggins scam¬ 
pered down to the kitchen with his tail on 
end. Teddy had to laugh ; he looked so 
funny. 

Papa came home from his office earlier 
than usual that afternoon, bringing with 
him a bundle of long, smooth sticks and a 


The Fairy Says Good-Bye. 187 

roll of tissue papers, and spent all the rest of 
the time between that and supper in making 
a great kite for Teddy. He told the little 
boy that if the next day were fine he would 
fly it for him, and that he might ask some 
of the boys to come and help. 

Teddy had never seen such a large kite 
before. When papa stood it up it was a 
great deal taller than the little boy himself. 
The gold star that was pasted on where 
the sticks crossed was just on a level with 
his eyes. 

So much seemed to have happened that 
day that very soon after supper Teddy 
felt tired and was quite willing to let 
mamma undress him and put him to bed. 

It felt very good to lie down between 
the cool sheets again, and very soon Ted¬ 
dy’s eyelids began to blink heavily, and 
he was already drifting off into that bliss¬ 
ful feeling that comes just as one is going 
to sleep, when he became dimly conscious 
of a faint sound of music. 


188 The Counterpane Fairy. 

At first, half asleep as he was, he thought 
that it must be little Cousin Harriett wind¬ 
ing up the music-box in the room, and 
then he suddenly started into conscious¬ 
ness with the remembrance that he was 
alone and that it could n’t be Cousin Har¬ 
riett. She was at home ; in bed perhaps, 
already. 

The music seemed to sound quite near 
him, and it was very sweet and soft. 
Now that he was awake it sounded more 
like the voice of the singing garden than 
anything else. 

Suddenly a faint rosy light appeared at 
the foot of the bed, and standing in it was 
the most beautiful lady that Teddy had 
ever seen. She was quite tall,—as tall as 
his own mother, and not even the fairy 
Rosine, or the Bird-maiden,—no, nor the 
Princess Aureline herself, had been half as 
beautiful. 

But though the lady was so lovely there 
was something very familiar about her 


The Fairy Says Good-Bye. 189 

face. “ Why, Counterpane Fairy ! ” cried 
Teddy. 

The Counterpane Fairy, for it was in¬ 
deed she, did not speak, but smiling at 
Teddy she moved softly and smoothly, as 
though swept along by the music to the 
side of the bed, and, still smiling, she bent 
above the little boy. 

As he looked up into the face that leaned 
above him, it seemed to change in some 
strange way, and now it was the old Ital¬ 
ian woman who had given him the presents 
from her basket; a moment after it was 
the face of the little child who had talked 
with him upon the rainbow ; no, it was not; 
it was really the Counterpane Fairy her¬ 
self, and no one else. 

Closer and closer she leaned above him, 
seeming to enfold him with faint music 
and light and perfume. “ Good-bye,” she 
whispered softly. “ Good-bye ! little boy.” 

“Oh, Counterpane Fairy! where are you 
going ? Don’t go away ! ” cried Teddy. 


190 The Counterpane Fairy. 

“ I ’m not going away,” said the fairy. 
“ I shall be beside you still just as often 
as ever, only you won’t see me.” 

“ But won’t there be any more stories ?” 
cried Teddy, in dismay. 

“ Sometime, perhaps,” said the Counter¬ 
pane Fairy, “ but not now, for to-morrow 
you ’ll be out and playing with the other 
boys, and after that it will be your school 
and your games that you ’ll be thinking 
of.” 

“Oh, Counterpane Fairy, don’t go!” 
cried Teddy again, reaching out his arms 
toward her; but they touched nothing but 
empty air. Waving her hand to him and 
still smiling, the Counterpane Fairy slowly, 
slowly faded away. With her, too, faded 
the rosy light and the perfume that had 
filled the room ; only the faint sound of 
music was left. Then it too died away. 

Teddy sat up and looked about him. 
The room was very still and dim. He 
heard nothing but the ticking of the clock. 


The Fairy Says Good-Bye. 191 

The half-moon had sailed up above the 
dark tops of the pine-trees on the lawn 
outside, and by its light he saw the great 
kite that papa had made him, as it stood 
propped up on the mantle. The gilt star 
in the middle of it shone. 

It was true that he was no longer a 
little sick child. To-morrow he would be 
out-of-doors again, and shouting and play¬ 
ing with all the other boys. 

THE END. 


















































































































































































• • 















jUL 6 1904 




















































































































































BRENTANO’S 
Hdlern & Stationer*, 
twhinjrton, D. C. 

























































































